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Evaluation of Optical Instruments for Real-Time Continuous Monitoring of Smoke Particulates
Objectives—The objectives of the field tests were to validate the 1998 laboratory results by comparing results from the optical instruments to those from a gravimetric instrument in a field environment. The instruments were placed side by side downwind of prescribed burns or wildland fires to gather data from the smoke (figure 10). The field tests also gave us the opportunity to obtain field experience with each of the instruments.
Figure 10—Instrument layout during the 1999 field tests.
Location—The field tests were conducted near prescribed and wildland fires in and around the Missoula and Bitterroot Valleys in Montana and northern Idaho. The distance from the burn to the instruments varied, depending on the availability of secure land where the instruments could be set up. Because the instruments were set up in relatively pristine airsheds, elevated particulate levels were assumed to be from smoke.
Instruments—Only the DataRam and Radiance Research nephelometer were available for the field tests conducted in 1998. The Fire Sciences Laboratory's gravimetric instrument was used for gravimetric comparisons. The Met One GT-640 and the Andersen aethalometer were also available for the 1999 Field tests. The BGI PQ200 was used as the gravimetric standard for all the 1999 field tests.
Test Descriptions—The instruments were typically placed side by side and left overnight where it appeared residual smoke from the burns would settle. All instruments were equipped with their respective PM2.5 cutoff inlets and inlet heaters. Temperature, relative humidities, and wind all varied from test to test. The instruments were powered by a Honda 1,000-W portable generator modified to operate for extended periods of time.
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