An eye on emissions
A UK university team has developed laser radar technology to produce a reliable estimate of aviation pollution around airports
As EU limits on air quality threaten airport expansion, a UK university team has developed laser radar technology to produce a reliable estimate of aviation pollution and better understand how it acts on and around the runways.
Dr Michael Bennett at
Centre for Air Transport and the Environment is leading the project. His team replicated technology used in the US to create their own 'eye-safe' Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) device to track aircraft emissions. The team is the first in Europe to use this method to measure airport aircraft emissions.
The LIDAR reflects beams of light off nitrogen oxides and particulates in the air, measuring their shape and position, but not their concentration. It also has the ability to rapidly scan in elevation and azimuth, enabling it to track an aircraft and its emissions.
'We have a backscatter LIDAR where you shoot out beams at certain wavelengths and you look for the same wavelengths coming back.
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