Lidar based particulate flux measurement of agricultural field operations

Ground based remote sensing technologies such as scanning lidar systems (light detection and ranging) are increasingly being used to characterize ambient aerosols due to key advantages (i.e., wide area of regard (10 km2), fast response time, high spatial resolution (\u3c10 m) and high sensitivity). Scanning lidar allows for 3D imaging of atmospheric motion and aerosol variability. Space Dynamics Laboratory at Utah State University, in conjunction with the USDA-ARS, has developed and successfully deployed a three-wavelength lidar system called Aglite to characterize particles in diverse settings. Aglite generates near real-time imagery of particle size distribution and size-segregated mass concentration in addition to the ability to calculate whole facility emission rates. Based on over nine years of field and laboratory experience, we present concentration and emission rate results from various measurements in military and civilian deployments