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NEWS ARCHIVES
For Immediate Release
April 16, 2002
Eye in the Sky: Next Generation Ozone-Monitoring Technology Expected to Improve Smog Forecasting
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Knowing the concentration of ozone in the air above urban areas is a
missing piece of important information for ozone pollution forecasters.
Atmospheric scientists studying ozone pollution also need this information
to help determine the "sources and sinks" (i.e., where it is
created and where it goes) of air pollutants. In turn, metro area planners
could devise effective strategies to address air quality issues.
With these ultimate goals in mind, a team of engineers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is designing the next generation of ozone-monitoring technology. Based on light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technology developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the new version will make ozone monitoring continuous and affordable, and results will be available via the Internet in real time.
Funded by a Technology Development Partnership through the Georgia
Research Alliance and LaserCraft
Inc. of Norcross, Ga., the device has been dubbed NEXLASER for NEXt
Generation Laser Air Sensor for the Southeastern Region (though the technology
could be applied anywhere in the world).
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"NEXLASER will be great for ozone forecasting, and it should enable
people to do new kinds of research projects in city planning, environmental
engineering and atmospheric chemistry," said GTRI project director
Gary Gimmestad.
"…. Right now, it's hard to correlate anything like traffic
patterns with ozone. It's just not accurate yet because there's not enough
information."
NEXLASER will adapt and automate the operation of LIDAR, which in the
past has been suitable only for short-term studies because it requires
numerous personnel to operate it.
LIDAR works like this: 1) A laser emits pulses of light that scatter
into the atmosphere. 2) Then a telescope receives that scattered light.
3) A detector converts the light to electronic signals. 4) A data system
digitizes and stores those signals. 5) Finally, researchers determine
the distance the light scattered by multiplying the speed of light by
the flight time it took the pulse to travel up and back.
This information reveals the ozone concentration at periodic measured
distances because ozone absorbs one color of light emitted from the laser,
but not another. So a dense concentration of ozone would lessen the distance
light scatters.
While LIDAR provides significant data, it is usually not automated. It
takes a crew of operators to make adjustments, maintain the system, and
collect and analyze data. NEXLASER will automate this process, making
data collection continuous and data analysis occur in real time.
"NEXLASER's three-dimensional data -- altitude up to 3 kilometers,
ozone concentration and geographic distribution from a network of units
-- will represent a significant technological improvement," Gimmestad
said. "We hope that knowing the ozone concentration in all of these
places can improve researchers' understanding of ozone sources and sinks."
Senior research scientist Michael Chang in the Georgia Tech School
of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences is hopeful about NEXLASER. "If
they can pull this off and get a unit that is affordable, it would be
great," Chang said. "We can do this type of monitoring now,
but it requires a $2 million investment. If they can get the cost down
to about a quarter of a million, it's still costly, but we can handle
that.
"Vertical profiles of air quality are the great unknown. All of
the air quality monitoring we do now is essentially at the surface. But
what's above the surface is extremely critical in terms of the air quality
at the surface, particularly in the late afternoon. NEXLASER could be
the single greatest improvement to our ozone forecasting at this time….
We're looking forward to it with great anticipation," Chang added.
Researchers have completed a laboratory version of NEXLASER and a prototype
of software to automate data analysis. They recently began operating,
testing and evaluating the system in their lab. The next phase, which
may begin this summer, will be field-testing.
After that, researchers would work with LaserCraft engineers in developing
a commercial version of NEXLASER, which would cost about $250,000 per
unit. Gimmestad hopes a network of six NEXLASER units will be deployed
within two years at Georgia Environmental Protection Division field sites
around metro Atlanta.
"Atlanta is the perfect test case for a NEXLASER network,"
Gimmestad said. "It has the third-worst air quality in the nation
after Los Angeles and Houston…. We hope the NEXLASER technology would
be adopted by other cities within five years."
Meanwhile, much work must be done in the lab, the field and the commercial
arena. Because LaserCraft is funding part of the NEXLASER research, it
has the rights to license the technology. Georgia Tech would grant an
actual license to LaserCraft after Gimmestad's team completes field-testing.
"LaserCraft is very pleased to sponsor this project for a number
of reasons," said Glen P. Robinson Jr., CEO of LaserCraft. "It
fits into our long-range plans to develop new products around laser technology.
The NEXLASER will help solve a serious air pollution problem, and it will
provide many new, high-tech employment opportunities for Georgia citizens."
LaserCraft's major products are laser speed guns used for traffic speed
control, monitoring violations at traffic lights and stop signs, and identifying
speeders in school zones and residential areas, and a line of laser-based
surveying instruments.
The Georgia Research Alliance is also hopeful about the prospects for
NEXLASER. "It brings together Georgia Tech's research and development
strengths with LaserCraft's success in marketing and selling laser-based
technology," said Kathleen Robichaud, program manager for GRA. And
it has real potential for helping to address very serious air quality
problems."
The other GTRI researchers involved with the study are project lead engineer Dave Roberts, and engineers John Stewart, Leanne Little West and Jack Wood.
RESEARCH NEWS & PUBLICATIONS OFFICE
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 100
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA
MEDIA RELATIONS CONTACTS:
Jane Sanders (404-894-2214); E-mail:
jane.sanders@edi.gatech.edu; Fax: (404-894-6983) or John Toon (404-894-6986);
E-mail: john.toon@edi.gatech.edu;
Fax: (404-894-4545).
TECHNICAL CONTACT: Gary Gimmestad (404-894-3419); E-mail: gary.gimmestad@gtri.gatech.edu
Writer: Jane Sanders