A novel multi-beam correlation lidar for wind profiling and plume tracking for air quality applications

Abstract:

Various types of in-situ and remote sensing techniques are being utilized for measuring air quality parameters. In this paper, the development and testing of a novel three beam multifunctional direct detection lidar for air quality applications will be discussed. Operating at 1030 nm wavelength, this lidar is a nanosecond class direct detection system with three transceivers and is capable of tracking the motion of aerosol structures using elastic backscatter. Designed with scalable and modular elements and advanced algorithms and graphical user display, this lidar is tripod mounted and measures three component (3D) winds by cross correlation of aerosol backscatter from three near-parallel beams. Besides extracting multi-component wind data, the system is designed provide various atmospheric elements including turbulence. Performance of this lidar in regard to crosswind profiling has been validated with ultrasonic anemometers under low and high wind conditions. From the field data, it shown that this lidar is capable of providing relatively high spatial resolution (<1.2 m) and line-of-sight error less than 0.1 m/s over a range of greater than 2 km. With a maximum operational range of over 15 km, this lidar was recently used to study effluents from a smokestack. The results of our plume tracking study will be presented and follow-on applications for studying air emissions due to hydraulic fracturing or fracking, will be discussed.