Quantum Fingerprint-Based Air Quality Monitoring in Coastal Environments

Coastal environments vital to our nation are strongly impacted by natural and human factors and are also sensitive to global climate change. A need exists for innovative new field measurement technologies to support NASA's remote sensing efforts in coastal regions. Two specific subjects of interest include the air quality in coastal regions and algal blooms. We proposed to develop for commercialization a Quantum FingerprintTM sensor based on a sapphire substrate that can be used for both even though they are not closely related. For air quality measurement in the coastal environment we will use the flexible QFTM technology to simultaneously detect, discriminate, and quantify levels of SOx and NOx. This flexibility, which arises from the unique set of energy levels created by the interaction of each species with the sensor, will also allow the same sensor to detect and monitor algal blooms by keying on their characteristic gaseous emissions. Thus, arrays of QFTM sensors, both on and off shore, could simultaneously monitor coastal air quality and track algal blooms. Our goal is to assess how well two relatively different applications might be served by a single type of QFTM sensor when they occur in the same geographic area.