Remote sensing of chemical species in the atmosphere
Document ID: 195
Philbrick, C. Russell1,2,3
Brown, David M.1
Willitsford, Adam H.1
Edwards, Perry S.1
Wyant, Andrea M.1
Liu, Zhiwen Z.1
Chadwick, Christopher Todd2
Hallen, Hans D.2
1 The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Electrical Engineering, University Park, PA, U.S.A.
2 North Carolina State University, Department of Physics, Raleigh, NC, U.S.A.
3 North Carolina State University, Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Raleigh, NC, U.S.A.
Presented: 89th AMS Meeting
Phoenix, Arizona, 11-15 January 2009
invited paper
Abstract
Laser remote sensing techniques now provide capabilities for measuring the primary natural atmospheric species and can also be used to detect several of the air pollutants and precursors emitted into the atmosphere or deposited onto surfaces. In recent years, interests in developing sensors capable of detecting lower concentration levels of various species has increased for applications in air pollution monitoring, and for warnings of the presence of hazardous chemicals. Our long term efforts have focused on developing and using various applications of Raman and DIAL lidar techniques to measure atmospheric species, pollutants and aerosols. Our recent efforts are focused on developing the capabilities of multi-wavelength differential absorption lidar techniques extended to infrared wavelengths, and resonance-Raman scattering at ultraviolet wavelengths. Broadband supercontinuum lasers used as transmitter sources provide a new capability for measuring chemical species while performing multi-wavelength differential absorption lidar (DIAL) analysis. This technique opens the opportunity of applying well-developed spectroscopy techniques and hyperspectral remote sensing for measuring the concentrations of molecular species. Resonance-Raman scattering techniques using ultraviolet wavelengths are being developed to extend our detection to small concentration levels of certain chemical species. These two new techniques advance our capability to measure the chemical species. Recent measurement results, simulations, and calculations are used to describe our current capabilities, and indicate future directions for these applications in laser remote sensing.