Abstract
Pollen has various effects on human health and the environment. To understand phenomena behind atmospheric pollen transport and hence improve pollen forecasts, vertically resolved optical properties and geometrical characteristics of the pollen distribution need to be studied. Lidar measurements and especially the particle depolarization ratio have been found to be an excellent tool to track pollen grains. In this study we present first results of atmospheric pollen characterization based on a 11 days period of birch and spruce pollination events.
Highlights
Pollen is one type of primary biogenic atmospheric aerosol
In this study we focus on the observation of birch pollen as those are considered to be one of the most allergenic pollen types
Lidar measurements were conducted with the multi-wavelength Raman polarization lidar PollyXT [7,8]
Summary
Pollen is one type of primary biogenic atmospheric aerosol. Concentration, types and sources are diverse, making the monitoring of pollen challenging. Using lidar it is possible to investigate the vertical distribution of aerosols. This information can be used for forecasting pollen concentration, their vertical distribution and transport. Lidar measurements have shown a strong depolarization signature caused by non-spherical pollen [2,3,4,5]. Our goal is to improve the existing knowledge of pollen detection using lidar measurements. We conducted a campaign from May to August 2016 at the rural forest station in Vehmasmäki (Finland) to measure different pollen types throughout the pollination season. Pine (Pinus sylvestris), spruce (Picea abies), and birch (Betula pubescens, Betula pendula) trees make up 97% of the growing stock on forest land [6]
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