Emission factors for agricultural operations are needed in order to develop reliable PM10
emissions inventories and air quality models for air basins with significant agricultural land
use. A framework was developed to analyze the PM10 vertical profiles collected downwind
of tilling operations in the San Joaquin Valley. The methods calculate emission factors on
the basis of profile shape and assign quality ratings to each land preparation test.
Uncertainties in the calculated emission factors and plume heights were used as one …

Vertical profiling with point samplers is an accepted method for quantifying the fluxes of
PM10 from non-point fugitive dust sources, but is limited by uncertainty in estimates of the
actual height of the dust plume, especially for plumes that exceed the highest sampling
height. Agricultural land preparation operations in the San Joaquin Valley were monitored
using upwind–downwind vertical PM10 profiles and data collected during the first successful
experiment to include light detection and ranging (lidar), in 1998, were analyzed to provide …