Airborne Lidar Measurements of a Smoke Plume Produced by a Controlled Burn of Crude Oil on the Ocean.

An airborne lidar was used to study the smoke plume from the burning of a controlled oil spill on the ocean. The ratio of the amount of light (at a wavelength, λ, of 0.532 u.m) backscattered by the smoke to the amount of light extinguished by the smoke was determined by measuring the strength of a laser beam after it had passed through the smoke plume, been reflected from the ocean, and passed through the smoke plume again, and comparing this to the strength of the laser beam reflected directly from the ocean. The optical depth of the smoke (at λ = 0.532 µm) was typically between 0.2 and 0.5. The mass fluxes of smoke particles that passed through four vertical cross sections of the (nonsteady state) smoke plume were estimated from lidar measurements to be 142, 175, 423, and 414 g s-1, compared to an average smoke mass production rate of ~770 g s-1. The spatial distribution of smoke mass along the long axis of the plume was also estimated from the lidar measurements; derived smoke mass concentrations were generally <300 µg m-3, with a few isolated values up to ~800 µg m-3.