Lidar and contact investigations of aerosol characteristics near high traffic urban sites

Abstract

In this work some features are revealed, simultaneously by LIDAR and contact facilities, of the aerosol pollutions near high-traffic sites in Sofia City. Such features of interest are the extinction coefficient of the aerosol ensembles and their mass concentration, as well as the shapes and sizes and the structure of the aerosol particles and their chemical composition and biological content. They outline possible negative effects of the aerosol pollutants on the human health. The experiments are conducted in the spring and summer, in different sites of interest in Sofia City. The results about the aerosol mass concentration-to-extinction calibration of the LIDAR constant, obtained in the spring and in the late spring and the summer, are consistent with each other and with the combined spring-and-summer result. Using electron microscopy, various aerosol samples are visualized resembling mineral dust particles, pollen, soot, and even microorganisms. The results from the analysis of the images obtained would serve as guidelines of further chemical and microbiological studies.