Lidar equation inversion methods and uncertainties in measuring fugitive particulate matter emission factors

Measurements from two field campaigns that employed a micropulse lidar are used to compare the near-end and the far-end lidar equation inversion methods for estimating emission factors (EFs) of particulate matter (PM) from three types of anthropogenic fugitive sources: vehicles moving on unpaved roads, open burning, and open detonation. As optical depth increased from 0 to 2, relative EF uncertainty increased from 54% to 300% using the near-end method and decreased from 69% to 42% using the far-end method. To the best of our knowledge, this research is the first to use field measurements to compare results from these methods for anthropogenic PM plumes and quantify their uncertainties.