Atmospheric aerosol profiling with a bistatic imaging lidar system

Atmospheric aerosols have been profiled using a simple, imaging, bistatic lidar system. A vertical laser beam is imaged onto a charge-coupled-device camera from the ground to the zenith with a wide-angle lens (CLidar). The altitudes are derived geometrically from the position of the camera and laser with submeter resolution near the ground. The system requires no overlap correction needed in monostatic lidar systems and needs a much smaller dynamic range. Nighttime measurements of both molecular and aerosol scattering were made at Mauna Loa Observatory. The CLidar aerosol total scatter compares very well with a nephelometer measuring at 10 m above the ground. The results build on earlier work that compared purely molecular scattered light to theory, and detail instrument improvements.     

Impact of sodium laser guide star fratricide on multi-conjugate adaptive optics systems

Laser beams projected from the ground to form sodium layer laser guide stars (LGSs) for adaptive optics (AO) systems experience scattering and absorption that reduce their intensity as they propagate upward through the atmosphere. Some fraction of the scattered light will be collected by the other wavefront sensors and causes additional background in parts of the pupil. This cross-talk between different LGS wavefront sensors is referred to as the fratricide effect. In this paper we quantify the magnitude of four different sources of scattering/absorption and backscattering, and we evaluate their impact on performance with various zenith angles and turbulence profiles for one particular AO system. The resulting wavefront error for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) multi-conjugate AO (MCAO) system, NFIRAOS, is on the order of 5 to 20 nm RMS, provided that the mean background from the fratricide effect can be calibrated and subtracted with an accuracy of 80%. We also present the impact on system performance of momentary variations in LGS signal levels due to variations in cirrus absorption or laser power, and we show that this affects the performance more than does an equal variation in the level of the fratricide.     

Ultraviolet Rayleigh-Mie lidar by use of a multicavity Fabry-Perot filter for accurate temperature profiling of the troposphere

A UV Rayleigh-Mie scattering lidar system at 355 nm has been upgraded for more-accurate temperature profiling of the troposphere by use of a new multicavity Fabry-Perot etalon (MCFPE) filter. The MCFPE filter, which was designed to improve the stability and operational characteristics of the lidar system, has three filter bandpass functions and separates one Mie scattering and two Rayleigh scattering signals from the lidar return signal and simultaneously acts as a laser frequency discriminator to lock the laser frequency. Moreover, a high-resolution grating is employed to block signal interference from Raman scattering and the solar background. A practical lidar system, which features strong system stabilization and high measurement accuracy, has been built, and the performance of the lidar system has been verified by comparison of temperature profiling between the lidar and a radiosonde. Good agreement between the two instrument measurements was obtained in terms of lapse rate and inversion layer height. Statistical temperature errors of less than 1 K up to a height of 3 km are obtainable with 5 min observation time for daytime measurements.     

Enhancement of Raman scattering signals from gaseous medium near the surface of a holographic aluminum diffraction grating

The possibility of applying surface-enhanced Raman scattering (RS) for amplification of RS intensity in gaseous media is investigated. A more than sixfold enhancement of the RS signal is detected experimentally from the main atmospheric air components during interaction of continuous-wave laser radiation with a holographic aluminum diffraction grating. The averaged value of the RS signals’ amplification factor in the near-surface 30-nm-thick layer at the boundary between the diffraction grating and gaseous medium amounted to ~3 × 10³.     

Optical harmonic generation from animal tissues by the use of picosecond and femtosecond laser pulses

Second- and third-harmonic generations of femtosecond and picosecond laser pulses have been measured from chicken skin, muscle, and fat tissues. The magnitude of the harmonic signals showed a strong structural dependence with the signal from skin interface being the strongest. The polarization dependence of the signal was also measured and found to be consistent with the fact that the tissue samples were highly scattering random media. The second-harmonic- and third-harmonic-generation conversion efficiencies were found to be in the range of ~10(-7) to ~10(-10).     

Depth profiling in diffusely scattering media using Raman spectroscopy and picosecond Kerr gating

We demonstrate how pulsed laser Raman excitation (approximately 1 ps) followed by fast optical Kerr gating (approximately 4 ps) can be used to effectively separate Raman signals originating from different depths in heterogeneous diffusely scattering media. The diffuse scattering slows down photon propagation through turbid samples enabling higher depth resolution than would be obtained for a given instrumental time resolution in an optically transparent medium. Two types of experiments on two-layer systems demonstrate the ability to differentiate between surface and sub-surface Raman signals. A Raman spectrum was obtained of stilbene powder buried beneath a 1 mm over-layer of PMMA (poly(methyl methacrylate)) powder. The signal contrasts of the lower stilbene layer and upper PMMA layer were improved by factors >or=5 and >or=180, respectively, by rejecting the Raman component of the counterpart layer. The ability to select the Raman signal of a thin top surface layer in preference to those from an underlying diffusely scattering substrate was demonstrated using a 100 mum thick optically transparent film of PET (poly(ethylene terephthalate)) on top of stilbene powder. The gating resulted in the suppression of the underlying stilbene Raman signal by a factor of 1200. The experiments were performed in back-scattering geometry using 400 nm excitation wavelength. The experimental technique should be well suited to biomedical applications such as disease diagnosis.     

Down looking lidar inversion constrained by ocean reflection and forward scatter of laser light

The laser aureole at 1.06 microm resulting from the redirection of light by sea surface reflection and forward scatter through maritime boundary layer aerosols to a sensor high above the ocean surface is modeled for profiles with typical North Atlantic aerosol size distributions. The magnitude of this laser aureole is highly correlated with the optical depth for these profiles. This optical depth, estimated from the laser aureole, is used to adjust the power of the extinction-backscatter relationship in a Bernoulli-Riccati lidar inversion. Using a lognormal marine aerosol model, 150 profiles of aerosol size distributions are selected by their probability of occurrence in the North Atlantic boundary layer. For these profiles, the lidar inversion using the estimated optical depth predicted the surface extinction 5 times better than the lidar inversions using a climatological backscatter-extinction relationship.     

Cloud-droplet-size distribution from lidar multiple-scattering measurements

A method for calculating droplet-size distribution in atmospheric clouds is presented, based on measurement of laser backscattering and multiple scattering from water clouds. The lidar uses a Nd:YAG laser that emits short pulses at a moderate repetition rate. The backscattering, which is composed mainly of single scattering, is measured with a detector pointing along the laser beam. The multiple scattering, which is mainly double scattering, is measured with a second detector, pointing at a specified angle to the laser beam. The domain of scattering angles that contribute to the doublescattering signal increases monotonically as the pulse penetrates the cloud. The water droplets within the probed volume are assumed to have a constant size distribution. Hence, from the double-scatteringmeasured signal as a function of penetration depth within the cloud, the double-scattering phase function of the scattering volume is derived. Inverting the phase function results in a cloud-droplet-size distribution in the form of a log-normal function.     

Mobility measurements by phase analysis

A new instrument, based on the principle of phase analysis light scattering (PALS) for the measurement of electrophoretic mobilities, has been produced. Such measurements are particularly useful in the study of dispersions in nonpolar and highly conducting media. The current PALS configuration can be used to measure mobilities up to 3 orders of magnitude lower than with the conventional Doppler mode. The device has a number of new features; in particular, all the signal processing is digital and the optical system features a reference beam configuration. Data are presented to show that on suitable samples both the PALS technique and conventional laser Doppler electrophoresis can be performed on the same instrument and the techniques are in good agreement.     

Sensitivity studies for imaging a spherical object embedded in a spherically symmetric, two-layer turbid medium with photon-density waves

We present analytic expressions for the amplitude and phase of photon-density waves in strongly scattering, spherically symmetric, two-layer media containing a spherical object. This layered structure is a crude model of multilayered tissues whose absorption and scattering coefficients lie within a range reported in the literature for most tissue types. The embedded object simulates a pathology, such as a tumor. The normal-mode-series method is employed to solve the inhomogeneous Helmholtz equation in spherical coordinates, with suitable boundary conditions. By comparing the total field at points in the outer layer at a fixed distance from the origin when the object is present and when it is absent, we evaluate the potential sensitivity of an optical imaging system to inhomogeneities in absorption and scattering. For four types of background media with different absorption and scattering properties, we determine the modulation frequency that achieves an optimal compromise between signal-detection reliability and sensitivity to the presence of an object, the minimum detectable object radius, and the smallest detectable change in the absorption and scattering coefficients for a fixed object size. Our results indicate that (l) enhanced sensitivity to the object is achieved when the outer layer is more absorbing or scattering than the inner layer; (2) sensitivity to the object increases with the modulation frequency, except when the outer layer is the more absorbing; (3) amplitude measurements are proportionally more sensitive to a change in absorption, phase measurements are proportionally more sensitive to a change in scattering, and phase measurements exhibit a much greater capacity for distinguishing an absorption perturbation from a scattering perturbation.     

Fabry-Perot interferometer based Mie Doppler lidar for low tropospheric wind observation

Similar in principle to recent implementations of a lidar system at 355 nm [Opt. Lett. 25, 1231 (2000), Appl. Opt. 44, 6023 (2005)], an incoherent-detection Mie Doppler wind lidar at 1064 nm was developed and deployed in 2005 [Opt. Rev. 12, 409 (2005)] for wind measurements in the low troposphere, taking advantage of aerosol scattering for signal enhancement. We present a number of improvements made to the original 1064 nm system to increase its robustness for long-period operation. These include a multimode fiber for receiving the reference signal, a mode scrambler to allow uniform illumination over the Fabry-Perot interferometer, and a fast scannable Fabry-Perot interferometer for calibration and for the determination of outgoing laser frequency during the wind observation. With these improvements in stability, the standard deviation of peak transmission and FWHM of the Fabry-Perot interferometer was determined to be 0.49% and 0.36%, respectively. The lidar wind measurements were validated within a dynamic range of +/-40 m/s. Comparison experiments with both wind profiler radar and Vaisala wiresonde show good agreement with expected observation error. An example of 24 h continuous observations of wind field and aerosol backscatter coefficients in the boundary layer with 1 min and 30 m temporal and spatial resolution and 3 m/s tolerated wind velocity error is presented and fully demonstrates the stability and robustness of this lidar.     

Radiative transfer calculations in multilayer systems with smooth or rough interfaces

Abstract

A very general discrete-ordinate method is presented for radiative transfer calculations in plane-parallel systems with partially reflecting interfaces. It is the natural extension of existing treatments for atmospheres (like DISORT) to account for changes of refractive index (Fresnel interfaces). The system under study is made of several dielectric layers, each layer containing spherical particles which produce anisotropic scattering (Mie scatterers). Incident light can be either collimated at normal or oblique incidence, or diffuse. A reflecting substrate can be added to the system. A procedure can be used to calculate the scattered fluxes at arbitrary angles, from the fluxes firstly obtained at a fixed set of polar angles. An efficient matrix formalism allows one to consider various boundary conditions: smooth or rough (scattering) interfaces. Surface scattering is introduced through a combination of Kirchhoff's expressions (for the specular reflection attenuation) and a geometrical optics model (for the scattering lobe). Comparisons with previous models and examples of simulations are presented. The main limitation of the method seems to be the approximate account for the polarization in this scalar treatment.     

局部褶皱对层状地基马蹄形孔洞散射的影响分析

水平岩层在构造作用下会产生局部褶皱,研究褶皱对层状地基马蹄形孔洞散射的影响,对地表结构地震安全性评价具有重要意义。基于子结构法建立了复杂场地散射问题的控制方程,将地震波散射问题的求解转化具有规则边界条件的层状地基(自由场)的动力刚度和波动响应的求解。通过Fourier变换和引入对偶变量,将波动方程转化为一阶常微分方程,采用精细积分算法对土层可实现高效合并,施加边界条件可得到内部节点的格林函数,进一步得到动力刚度。同时,采用精细积分算法代替原传递矩阵法的层间合并,可得到层状自由场的波动响应。这种改进传递矩阵法对土层厚度和层数没有任何限制。通过与文献中的结果对比,验证了方法的正确性,并分析了局部褶皱对层状地基中马蹄形孔洞散射场的影响。结果表明:局部褶皱对地表位移幅值的影响与入射波类型、入射波频率以及局部褶皱几何构造等因素均有关系;地表位移峰值受马蹄形孔洞和局部褶皱共同作用的影响,其影响特性与入射波类型无明显关系。     

激光多普勒位移测量中散射光多普勒信号强度与系统结构参数相关的分析研究

利用激光多普勒效应实现固体面内位移测量时 ,由于散射光的多普勒信号十分微弱 ,有时还出现淹没或不连续 ,影响位移测量精度。本文研究提高信号强度的途径 ,推导出在差动多普勒位移测量系统中 ,散射光多普勒信号强度与系统结构参数的关系 ,为测量系统结构设计提供理论依据     

Simultaneous measurements of particle backscattering and extinction coefficients and wind velocity by lidar with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer: principle of operation and performance assessment

The development of remote-sensing instruments that can be used to monitor several parameters at the same time is important for the study of complex processes such as those that control climate and environment. In this paper the performance of a new concept of lidar receiver that allows for the direct measurement of aerosol and cloud optical properties simultaneously with wind velocity is investigated. This receiver uses a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Two different configurations, either with four photometric output channels or with fringe imaging on a multichannel detector, are studied. Analytical expressions of the statistical errors are given under the assumption of Gaussian signal spectra. It is shown that similar accuracies can be achieved for both configurations. Performance modeling of the retrieval of semitransparent cloud optical scattering properties and wind velocity was done at different operation wavelengths for a Nd:YAG laser source. Results for such a lidar system onboard an aircraft flying at an altitude of 12 km show that for semitransparent clouds the best results were obtained at 355 nm, with relative standard deviations of 0.5% and 5% for the backscatter and extinction coefficients, respectively, together with a velocity accuracy of 0.2 ms(-1). The accuracy of optical properties retrieved for boundary layer aerosols are comparable, whereas the velocity accuracy is decreased to 1 ms(-1). Finally, an extrapolation to a large 355-nm spaceborne lidar shows accuracies in the range from 2.5% to 5% for the backscatter coefficient and from 10% to 15% for the extinction coefficient together with a vertical wind speed accuracy of better than 0.5 ms(-1) for semitransparent clouds and boundary layer, with a vertical resolution of 500 m and a 100 shot averaging.     

Semi-analytical Monte Carlo simulation for time-resolved light propagating in multilayered turbid media

In this study, a Monte Carlo (MC) method for time-resolved light scattering from multilayered turbid media (SMCML) has been developed. This method is particularly suitable for simulating light backscattering from layered media and receiving the time-resolved signal in a finite sensor area, such as ocean detection, photomedicine and photobiology. The classical semi-analytical MC method requires the scattering events to be located in a single-layer medium. To address the multilayer problem, the energy loss mechanism of photons propagating in tissue was analyzed in this study. According to the energy contribution to the detector, only photons that contribute significantly were considered. Simulations were conducted for stochastic turbid media with different optical parameters. Temporal profiles of the echo signal were obtained with a satisfactory convergence. Compared to the classical MC method, the SMCML method can dramatically reduce the computation time by more than two orders of magnitude.     

Nonlinear susceptibility interference in laser SRS-CARS diagnostics of hydrogen in gas mixtures

We have studied the possibility to measure small hydrogen concentrations in dense gas mixtures by method of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) in combination with biharmonic laser pumping by means of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). It was found that the interference of nonlinear susceptibilities of a buffer gas and hydrogen can lead to a parabolic dependence of the signal intensity on the hydrogen concentration, which makes the results of analyses uncertain. The ambiguity can be eliminated by selecting an appropriate composition and pressure of the gas mixture in the cell of the SRS generator of biharmonic laser pumping. Using this approach, hydrogen in air at atmospheric pressure can be detected by the laser SRS-CARS technique on a level of 5 ppm.     

Ultraviolet Rayleigh-Mie lidar with Mie-scattering correction by Fabry-Perot etalons for temperature profiling of the troposphere

A Rayleigh-Mie-scattering lidar system at an eye-safe 355-nm ultraviolet wavelength that is based on a high-spectral-resolution lidar technique is demonstrated for measuring the vertical temperature profile of the troposphere. Two Rayleigh signals, which determine the atmospheric temperature, are filtered with two Fabry-Perot etalon filters. The filters are located on the same side of the wings of the Rayleigh-scattering spectrum and are optically constructed with a dual-pass optical layout. This configuration achieves a high rejection rate for Mie scattering and reasonable transmission for Rayleigh scattering. The Mie signal is detected with a third Fabry-Perot etalon filter, which is centered at the laser frequency. The filter parameters were optimized by numerical calculation; the results showed a Mie rejection of approximately -45 dB, and Rayleigh transmittance greater than 1% could be achieved for the two Rayleigh channels. A Mie correction method is demonstrated that uses an independent measure of the aerosol scattering to correct the temperature measurements that have been influenced by the aerosols and clouds. Simulations and preliminary experiments have demonstrated that the performance of the dual-pass etalon and Mie correction method is highly effective in practical applications. Simulation results have shown that the temperature errors that are due to noise are less than 1 K up to a height of 4 km for daytime measurement for 300 W m(-2) sr(-1) microm(-1) sky brightness with a lidar system that uses 200 mJ of laser energy, a 3.5-min integration time, and a 25-cm telescope.     

环路剪切干涉术测量附面层密度场

在附面层测量中,需对微小尺度的高速气流变化场进行瞬态测量。数字化的干涉测量方法能定量地解算出流场的密度场,是一种重要的应用。介绍了一种共路干涉的环路剪切干涉方法,对震动不敏感,无需参考面,适合附面层测量使用。采用基于空间位相调制的快速算法,配以脉冲激光器和同步控制系统,可实时地对扰流密度场进行定量测量。该系统采集分辨率200 pixels×200 pixels,采集频率可达每秒1000帧以上。系统的波前重构方法经过计算机仿真,检测结果优于1/20λ。在0.6 m风洞对圆柱体尾部附面层进行测量试验,结果表明,在一定风速下,该系统能抑制振动干扰,显著地区分出圆柱体尾部扰流信号和振动噪声,具有良好的应用前景。