PANACEA-POLLEN DETECTION BY LIDAR LIF

The challenge in today's bioaerosol monitoring is to retrieve real-time information on the qualitative and quan-titative composition of the ambient air in bioparticles implicated to human health. A pilot study was conductedduring March–May 2018 in Athens, Greece in order to detect bioparticles within the Planetary Boundary Layer(PBL) by implementing the LIF LiDAR (Laser-Induced Fluorescence Light Detection and Ranging) technique atan excitation wavelength of 266 nm in order to determine the major components' contribution on the totalfluo-rescence LiDAR signals aloft (30–100 m above our site). The laboratory characterization of the prevalent pollengrains and fungal sporesfluorescence signatures enabled through deconvolution the breaking down of the re-trieved LIF LiDAR signals and unravelled each bioparticle's contribution. The bioaerosol occurrence and concen-tration, as determined by the concurrent sampling with a volumetric particle sampler, verified that the detectedfluorescence is related to the fungal and pollen aerosol concentration. The results of this study are very promisingfor the implementation of remote sensing technology in routine detection and quantification of airbornebioparticles in real-time which is important for allergy sufferers and physicians.

 

Project Title: 
Pollen Identification by insitu and LIF lidar techniques
Duration: 
2018 to 2020
Coordinator: 
NTUA-Laser Remote Sensing Unit
Location: 
Athens-Zografou