GENERAL PROJECT INFORMATION
BULGARIAN NATIONAL SCIENCE FUND
Project No ÊP-06-N28/10/11.12.2018
Project period: 2018-2021
Competition: Competition for financial support of basic research projects - 2018
Main research/thematic area, of the project: Physical sciences
Project title:
INVESTIGATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOLS
FOR AIR QUALITY ASSESMENTS BY USING TWO-WAVELENGTH LIDAR APPROACH
Type of the planned research: Fundamental research
Applying organization: Institute of Electronics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Coordinator of the research team: assoc. prof. Zahary Yordanov Peshev, PhD
| Coordinator's address (postal, electronic, phone): | 72, Tzarigradsko Chaussee blvd.,Sofia 1784, Bulgaria |
| Tel.: | (+359 2) 979 5859 |
| E-mail: | zypeshev@ie.bas.bg |
Total budget for accomplishment of the project (in BGN, 1.00 EUR = 1.95583 BGN): 120 000 BGN
SUMMARY:
Aerosols or particulate matter are one of the main and most massive pollutants of the atmospheric air, with a strong and direct impact on ecosystems and human health. Due to the high degree of gravity and high public importance of the problem, it is also a subject of considerations in a number of European and national regulations and documents, as well as to intensive research activities all around the world.
The main objective of the research program of this project is acquiring new systematic knowledge about atmospheric aerosols, as well as achieving better and comprehensive aerosol classification, characterization, and parameterization, accounting for their relations with present-time climatic and ecologic processes and changes of local, regional, and global scale, in order to draw general conclusions and estimates concerning the aerosol impacts on the air quality and human health in densely populated regions, as a result of conducted effective systematic remote monitoring of the presence, concentration, distribution and dynamics of the aerosols in the atmospheric air over the city of Sofia (Bulgaria).
The basic method, which will be used for carrying out the aerosol research studies planned in the frame of the project, is the lidar remote sensing. lt is a highly sensitive and effective tool for the registration, profiling and characterization of atmospheric aerosols and layers, with high spatial and temporal resolution, over significant distances and large areas.
The principal apparatus for conducting the experimental remote atmospheric investigations is a two-wavelength aerosol lidar system based on a powerful pulsed Nd:YAG laser with two working spectral channels of radiation emission and registration - in the near infrared spectral range (at 1064 nm) and in the visible range (at 532 nm).
With the innovative constructive upgrade of the lidar system, synergistic interaction with other experimental methods, modeling computing resources and aerosol-transport data, the two wavelength lidar is capable of providing measurements of wide range of optical, geometric, topological, dynamic and microphysical parameters of the registered aerosols, as well as assessments and conclusions on their type, origin and sources (local, external, crossborder).
The expected results from the implementation of the project work program are related to the creation of an information bank of digital and graphical databases containing results of the conducted research and the characterization of the atmospheric aerosols; as well as, mainly, to drawing complex assessments and conclusions regarding their relations with regional and global climatic and ecologic processes and their influence on the air quality and the human health, according to the normative documents and regulations, in view of their use by interested persons and responsible state/municipal structures for decision making.
