A measurement methodology to evaluate fugitive particulate emissions was developed and demonstrated. The project focused on the application of the lidar (laser radar) technique under field conditions, but in circumstances that simplified and controlled the variables of the general problem. The lidar was used to make elevation scans perpendicular to an aerosol plume generated by controlled release of particulate material into the atmosphere. The lidar backscatter and these values were related to independently measured particulate emission rates. Very high correlation was obtained between time-averaged lidar observations and emission rates (correlation coefficients of 0.9 or better in most runs), with substantially less correlation for individual lidar observations. Relatively high correlation also was obtained between smoke reader data (opacity) with smoke emission rate and with lidar backscatter. For dense smokes, attenuation of the lidar energy was shown to be of importance in interpreting data in terms of smoke concentration. The lidar was used at the site of an actual fugitive particulate source to demonstrate that appropriate data can be collected for measurement of source emission rate.