Polarization Lidar Detection of Agricultural Aerosol Emissions

Agricultural aerosol emissions can significantly impact human and animal health as well as the environment. Therefore, it is essential to adopt new sensing techniques for real-time monitoring these emissions in high temporal and spatial resolution. In recent years, light detection and ranging (lidar) technology has been used for measuring the particulate matter emitted from agricultural operations. However, conventional nonpolarized lidar systems cannot discriminate between different types of aerosols, which can lead to misinterpretation of the results. To overcome this limitation, this study applies the polarization lidar technique to monitor agricultural aerosols. A 355nm polarization lidar system was used to measure the emissions generated during pesticide spraying operations. The results showed that depolarization ratios due to field dust (0.220-0.268) and to road dust (0.385) are clearly higher than those caused by pesticide spray drift (0.028-0.043) or by diesel exhaust (0.099), which can be used to differentiate each type of aerosol. These results support the development of new polarization lidar systems specifically designed to study the impact of agricultural activities on air quality.