Optical Properties And Cross-Sections Of Biological Aerosols

There is an urgent need to develop standoff sensing of biological agents in aerosolized clouds. In support of the Joint Biological Standoff Detection System (JBSDS) program, lidar systems have been a dominant technology and have shown significant capability in field tests conducted in the Joint Ambient Breeze Tunnel (JABT) at Dugway Proving Ground (DPG). The release of biological agents in the open air is forbidden. Therefore, indirect methods must be developed to determine agent cross-sections in order to validate sensor against biological agents. A method has been developed that begins with laboratory measurements of thin films and liquid suspensions of biological material to obtain the complex index of refraction from the ultraviolet (UV) to the long wave infrared (LWIR). Using that result and the aerosols' particle size distribution as inputs to Mie calculations yields the backscatter and extinction cross-sections as a function of wavelength. Recent efforts to model field measurements from the UV to the IR have been successful. Measurements with aerodynamic and geometric particle sizers show evidence of particle clustering. Backscatter simulations of these aerosols show these clustered particles dominate the aerosol backscatter and depolarization signals. In addition, these large particles create spectral signatures in the backscatter signal due to material absorption. Spectral signatures from the UV to the IR have been observed in simulations of field releases. This method has been demonstrated for a variety of biological simulant materials such as Ovalbumin (OV), Erwinia (EH), Bacillus atrophaeus (BG) and male specific bacteriophage (MS2). These spectral signatures may offer new methods for biological discrimination for both stand-off sensing and point detection systems.