Ground-based Lidar measurements of dust plumes generated from unique military activities

Unique military activities, such as firing of artillery and movement of tracked vehicles on unimproved roads in arid regions, emit particulate matter (PM) to the atmosphere. Both visual air quality and public health can be adversely affected by PM emissions. Remote methods to quantify the mass of PM emitted from these fugitive sources are not well established. In this study, a novel method using optical remote sensing (ORS) devices was developed to quantify the size distributions, mass concentrations, and emission factors for PM that is emitted to the atmosphere during select military activities. The ORS devices consist of a ground-based Micro-Pulse Lidar (MPL), a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer and a Laser Transmissometer (LT). An algorithm was formulated to invert the Lidar equation, which was applied to compute the dust extinction profiles from the MPL's backscatter light signals. This method was then evaluated in the field during the generation of dust plumes by military activities. Dust emissions from the back-blast of two types of artillery (M549A1 and M107) were characterized at Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) in Arizona. Also, dust emissions from the movement of three types of tracked vehicles (M-l 13, Bradley, and M-l) were characterized at Yakima Training Center (YTC) in Washington. Extinction profiles obtained from the MPL were analyzed with the particle size distributions determined by FTIR and LT as well as the PM's densities and refractive indices to quantify size specific PM mass emissions from artillery back blasts and movement of tracked vehicles.