Optical Remote Sensing Method to Determine Strength of Non-point Sources
Abstract
Due to the spatial extent and nonhomogenous nature of area sources, quantification of the total pollutant emission using traditional point sampling and dispersion modeling techniques can be problematic. Ground-based optical remote sensing (ORS) techniques provide several measurement advantages over point sampling methods with regard to assessment of inhomogeneous, extended area sources. The ORS radial plume mapping (RPM) methods that were tested and demonstrated under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) oversight were developed to meet the requirements of both USEPA and the Department of Defense (DoD) for an accurate and reliable method to characterize aerosol and gaseous non-point sources (NPS) to be used for current and future needs of an evolving regulatory environment. Area-source measurements have significant challenges because they must deal with extended measurement sizes and spatial inhomogeneities, making characterization with fixed point monitoring or single path ORS (coupled with inverse dispersion modeling) difficult (Bath et al., 1989; B rjesson and Svensson, 2000; Spokas et al., 2003; National Research Council, 2003). A direct and accurate ORS measurement approach, the Differential Absorption LIDAR (DIAL), has been utilized in Europe; however, the high cost of importing the technology to North America has hampered adoption of the technology in the United States (Walmsley and O Connor, 1996; Gronland et al., 2005; Chambers et al., 2008). Because of these difficulties, there has been no accepted USEPA method for characterizing the emissions from area sources. USEPA endorsed the present ESTCP project to demonstrate RPM methods because of their promise to fill the void and become an USEPA accepted method for area sources.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA606316
Entities
Organizations
- Environmental Security Technology Certification Program