2. Title: Environmental studies with Laser methods
PI: E. Quel
CoPIs: Verónica Slezak y María Laura Azcárate
Period: 2008-2011
Total budget: ~ USD 300,000.
Funding Agency: AGENCIA NACIONAL DE PROMOCIÓN CIENTÍFICA y TÉCNICA - ARGENTINA
Summary
The project aims at improving and expanding the objectives set by
members of this group in the past years in FONCYT sponsored projects
PICT 2003 (#14267), 2004 (#25469) and 2005 (#38016), by acquiring
latest generation equipment to be applied to on-going research lines.
As described in previous proposals, this group aims at enhancing
knowledge on the evolution of atmospheric components and pollutants as
well as photochemical and photophysical processes that take place in
the atmosphere, given their effect on live on Earth. Small
concentrations of polluting species and aerosols and the chemical
reactions associated with them have strong environmental impact and
contribute to climate change.
Monitoring the concentration, spatial and temporal distribution of
atmospheric components, polluting species and aerosols and the physical
and chemical processes they undergo is an indispensable requisite to
improve human well-being. In this context, the project aims at:
Determining optical
parameters for aerosol characterization using 4 solar photometers from
the Aeronet worldwide network installed in Córdoba, Trelew,
Villa Martelli and Río Gallegos, Argentina. Determining the
aerosol contamination sources from the analysis of satellite data. The
comparison of those data with simultaneous measurements of aerosol and
water vapor profiles from lidar systems operating at the stations of
Villa Martelli and Río Gallegos, to improve the characterization
of aerosol pollution.
Measuring small concentrations
of pollutants in laboratory or in situ, expanding the application of
the photo-acoustic technique on molecules absorbing in the area of the
closer infrared (NO, N2O, C2H2, CH4, etc). To study possible
interferences of different substances using OPO laser tuning. The
application of this technique in different disciplines, such as
Medicine.
Implementing the Resonance
Enhanced Multi-Photon Ionization technique (REMPI), to determine
spectrums and fragmentation patterns at different wave-lengths and/or
laser power settings. This will make it possible to obtain qualitative
and quantitative information on the different steps of chemical
reactions by monitoring the temporal evolution of reagents and end and
intermediate reaction products, the speeds of the involved reactions,
identifying and detecting molecule traces of environmental interest.
This technique will be applied on NOx, CH4, SF6 and NH3.
Implement the laser induced
fluorescence (LIF) technique to detect radicals resulting from the
photolysis of chlorofluorocarbon compounds and determine their speeds
of reaction with different gases of atmospheric interest. In
particular, it will be applied to determine the speed of reaction of
CCl2 radicals with different gases of atmospheric interest such as O2,
NO2 and HCl.
The equipment requested in this project will contribute to ensure the
continuity of on-going lidar observations in the South; to obtain
reliable and accurate results in all the proposed experiments through
modern measuring equipment of gas tracers; to expand the objectives of
the different research lines based on a new infrared laser source; and
to ensure the implementation of the REMPI technique.