Date of Award:

5-2008

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Charles Swenson

Committee

Charles Swenson

Committee

Vladimir Zavyalov

Committee

Todd Moon

Abstract

Particulate emissions from agricultural operations are increasingly receiving attention from regulatory bodies as a potential source of air pollution. The Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) has developed the Aglite system, a suite of instruments including a lidar that is capable of measuring particulate emission levels from agricultural facilities. This system provides a novel method of measuring particulate mass (PM) pollution, allowing measurements to be taken of diverse types of facilities with high temporal and spatial resolution. This high resolution allows for the measurement of emission levels generated by specific activities, fostering the development and determination of best management practices.

The Aglite system consists of a mobile scanning multi-wavelength lidar, together with a set of conventional instruments. The lidar performs 3D scans of the air surrounding the facility. The lidar maps the concentration of particulates in the atmosphere surrounding the facility with high spatial and temporal resolution. Data from the conventional instruments are used to calibrate the lidar.

The design of the Aglite lidar can be divided into three categories: the hardware, the optics, and the software. The software subsystem includes the lidar control software and the lidar retrieval program. The lidar retrieval program combines the data from the lidar instrument with data from the conventional instruments to produce measurements of particulate concentration values. The high spatial and temporal resolution of the data produced by this software enables the radical capabilities of the Aglite system to measure total facility emissions and to correlate emission rates with specific agricultural practices.

This thesis describes the design of the lidar data retrieval program, the development and implementation of the algorithm, and the results of measurements made on the initial field campaign. This document is divided into four chapters. The first chapter describes the background of agricultural air pollution and the methodology used by the Aglite system in performing measurements. The second chapter describes the lidar retrieval program and the details of the algorithm. The third chapter presents the results of the measurements made by the instrument on its first field campaign. The final chapter discusses the performance of the instrument and future areas of research for the improvement of the algorithm.

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