Black carbon aerosol number and mass concentration measurements by picosecond short-range elastic backscatter lidar
Abstract
Black carbon aerosol emissions are recognized as contributors to global warming and air pollution. There remains, however, a lack of techniques to remotely measure black carbon aerosol particles with high range and time resolution. This article presents a direct and contact-free remote technique to estimate the black carbon aerosol number and mass concentration at a few meters from the emission source. This is done using the Colibri instrument based on a novel technique, referred to here as Picosecond Short-Range Elastic Backscatter Lidar (PSR-EBL). To address the complexity of retrieving lidar products at short measurement ranges, we apply a forward inversion method featuring radiometric lidar calibration. Our method is based on an extension of a well-established light-scattering model, the Rayleigh–Debye–Gans for Fractal-Aggregates (RDG-FA) theory, which computes an analytical expression of lidar parameters. These parameters are the backscattering cross-sections and the lidar ratio for black carbon fractal aggregates. Using a small-scale Jet A-1 kerosene pool fire, we demonstrate the ability of the technique to quantify the aerosol number and mass concentration with centimetre range-resolution and millisecond time-resolution.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 19, 2022
- Source ID
- 10.1038/s41598-022-11954-7
Entities
People
- Andrés E. Bedoya-velásquez
- Christopher Sorensen
- Claudio Mazzoleni
- Frédéric Fossard
- Jérôme Yon
- Lucas Paulien
- Matthew J. Berg
- Romain Ceolato
- Sidonie Lefebvre
- Vincent Mouysset
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- National Science Foundation
- Office National d'Études et de Recherches Aérospatiales
- United States Department of Energy