Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Development And Characterization Of An Inexpensive Single-Particle Fluorescence Spectrometer For Detection And Classification Of Pollen And Other Bioaerosols, Benjamin E. Swanson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Atmospheric aerosols are ubiquitous throughout the Earth’s atmosphere and can be important with respect to environmental systems and human health. Pollen particles are a class of primary biological aerosol particles (PBAPs) that cost the United States billions of dollars a year in loss of productivity and healthcare costs due to allergy and respiratory effects. Traditional methods of pollen detection rely on collection and subsequent identification by visual microscopy, yet few measurement stations exist in the United States. As such, current pollen forecasting models have relatively high prediction uncertainty, especially in regions without sampling stations. Recently, laser-induced fluorescence instrumentation has been …