Ultraviolet Rayleigh-Mie lidar for daytime-temperature profiling of the troposphere

A UV Rayleigh-Mie scattering lidar has been developed for daytime measurement of temperature and aerosol optical properties in the troposphere. The transmitter is a narrowband, injection-seeded, pulsed, third-harmonic Nd:YAG laser at an eye-safe wavelength of 355 nm. Two Fabry-Perot etalons (FPEs) with a dual-pass optical layout filter the molecular Rayleigh scattering components spectrally for retrieval of the temperature and provide a high rejection rate for aerosol Mie scattering in excess of 43 dB. The Mie signal is filtered with a third FPE filter for direct profiling of aerosol optical properties. The Mie scattering component in the Rayleigh signals, which will have influence on temperature measurements, is corrected by using a measure of aerosol scattering because of the relative insufficiency of Mie rejection of Rayleigh filters in the presence of dense aerosols or clouds, and the Mie rejection capability of system is thus improved. A narrowband interference filter is incorporated with the FPEs to block solar radiation. Also, the small field of view (0.1 mrad) of the receiver and the UV wavelength used enhance the ability of the lidar to suppress the solar background signal in daytime measurement. The system is relatively compact, with a power-aperture product of 0.18 W m(-2), and has a high sensitivity to temperature change (0.62%/K). Lidar measurements taken under different weather conditions (winter and summer) are demonstrated. Good agreement between the lidar and the radiosonde measurements was obtained in terms of lapse rates and inversions. Statistical temperature errors of less than 1 K up to a height of 2 km are obtainable, with an averaging time of approximately 12 min for daytime measurements.     

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.     

Atmospheric temperature profiling in the presence of clouds with a pure rotational Raman lidar by use of an interference-filter-based polychromator

A lidar polychromator design for the measurement of atmospheric temperature profiles in the presence of clouds with the rotational Raman method is presented. The design utilizes multicavity interference filters mounted sequentially at small angles of incidence. Characteristics of this design are high signal efficiency and adjustable center wavelengths of the filters combined with a stable and relatively simple experimental setup. High suppression of the elastic backscatter signal in the rotational Raman detection channels allows temperature measurements independent of the presence of thin clouds or aerosol layers; no influence of particle scattering on the lidar temperature profile was observed in clouds with a backscatter ratio of at least 45. The minimum integration time needed for temperature profiling with a statistical temperature error of +/-1 K at, e.g., 20-km height and 960-m height resolution is 1.5 h.     

Lidar measurements taken with a large-aperture liquid mirror. 1. Rayleigh-scatter system

A lidar system has been built to measure atmospheric-density fluctuations and the temperature in the upper stratosphere, the mesosphere, and the lower thermosphere, measurements that are important for an understanding of climate and weather phenomena. This lidar system, the Purple Crow Lidar, uses two transmitter beams to obtain atmospheric returns resulting from Rayleigh scattering and sodium-resonance fluorescence. The Rayleigh-scatter transmitter is a Nd:YAG laser that generates 600 mJ/pulse at the second-harmonic frequency, with a 20-Hz pulse-repetition rate. The sodium-resonance-fluorescence transmitter is a Nd:YAG-pumped ring dye laser with a sufficiently narrow bandwidth to measure the line shape of the sodium D(2) line. The receiver is a 2.65-m-diameter liquid-mercury mirror. A container holding the mercury is spun at 10 rpm to produce a parabolic surface of high quality and reflectivity. Test results are presented which demonstrate that the mirror behaves like a conventional glass mirror of the same size. With this mirror, the lidar system's performance is within 10% of theoretical expectations. Furthermore, the liquid mirror has proved itself reliable over a wide range of environmental conditions. The use of such a large mirror presented several engineering challenges involving the passage of light through the system and detector linearity, both of which are critical for accurate retrieval of atmospheric temperatures. These issues and their associated uncertainties are documented in detail. It is shown that the Rayleigh-scatter lidar system can reliably and routinely measure atmospheric-density fluctuations and temperatures at high temporal and spatial resolutions.     

Intensity-modulated, stepped frequency cw lidar for distributed aerosol and hard target measurements

A compact frequency-modulated, continuous wave (FM-cw) lidar system for measurement of distributed aerosol plumes and hard targets is presented. The system is based on intensity modulation of a laser diode and quadrature detection of the return signals. The advantages of using laser diode amplitude modulation and quadrature detection is a large reduction in the hardware required for processing and storing return signals as well as the availability of off-the-shelf integrated electronic components from the wireless and telecommunication communities. Equations to invert the quadrature signal components and determine spatial distributions of multiple targets are derived. Spatial scattering intensities are used to extract aerosol backscatter coefficients, which can then be directly compared to microphysics aerosol models for environmental measurements. Finally, results from laboratory measurements with a monostatic FM-cw lidar system with both hard targets and aerosols are discussed.     

Differential absorption lidar system for routine monitoring of tropospheric ozone

A differential absorption lidar system for routine profiling of tropospheric ozone for daytime and nighttime operation is described. The system uses stimulated Raman scattering in hydrogen and deuterium of 266-nm radiation from a quadrupled Nd:YAG laser. Ozone profiles from altitudes of 600 m to approximately 5 km have been obtained with analog detection. Implementing corrections for differential Rayleigh scattering, differential absorption from oxygen, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide, and differential aerosol extinction and backscatter can reduce the total system inaccuracy to 5-15% for a clear day and 20-30% for a hazy day, except at the top of the mixed layer. Photon counting must be installed to increase the measurement range from 5 to 15 km. An example of an application of routine measurements of tropospheric ozone profiles is given.     

Ground-based differential absorption lidar for water-vapor and temperature profiling: development and specifications of a high-performance laser transmitter

An all-solid-state laser transmitter for a water-vapor and temperature differential absorption lidar (DIAL) system in the near infrared is introduced. The laser system is based on a master-slave configuration. As the slave laser a Q-switched unidirectional alexandrite ring laser is used, which is injection seeded by the master laser, a cw Ti:sapphire ring laser. It is demonstrated that this laser system has, what is to my knowledge, the highest frequency stability (15 MHz rms), narrowest bandwidth (<40 MHz), and highest spectral purity (>99.99%) of all the laser transmitters developed to date in the near infrared. These specifications fulfill the requirements for water-vapor measurements with an error caused by laser properties of <5% and temperature measurements with an error caused by laser properties of <1 K in the whole troposphere. The specifications are maintained during long-term operation in the field. The single-mode operation of this laser system makes the narrow-band detection of the DIAL backscatter signal possible. Thus the system has the potential to be used for accurate temperature measurements and for simultaneous DIAL and Doppler wind measurements.     

Ultraviolet high-spectral-resolution Doppler lidar for measuring wind field and aerosol optical properties

An ultraviolet incoherent Doppler lidar that incorporates the high-spectral-resolution (HSR) technique has been developed for measuring the wind field and aerosol optical properties in the troposphere. An injection seeded and tripled Nd:YAG laser at an ultraviolet wavelength of 355 nm was used in the lidar system. The HRS technique can resolve the aerosol Mie backscatter and the molecular Rayleigh backscatter to derive the signal components. By detecting the Mie backscatter, a great increase in the Doppler filter sensitivity was realized compared to the conventional incoherent Doppler lidars that detected the Rayleigh backscatter. The wind velocity distribution in a two-dimensional cross section was measured. By using the HSR technique, multifunction and absolute value measurements were realized for aerosol extinction, and volume backscatter coefficients; the laser beam transmittance, the lidar ratio, and the backscatter ratio are derived from these measurements.     

Airborne polarized lidar detection of scattering layers in the ocean

A polarized lidar technique based on measurements of waveforms of the two orthogonal-polarized components of the backscattered light pulse is proposed to retrieve vertical profiles of the seawater scattering coefficient. The physical rationale for the polarized technique is that depolarization of backscattered light originating from a linearly polarized laser beam is caused largely by multiple small-angle scattering from particulate matter in seawater. The magnitude of the small-angle scattering is determined by the scattering coefficient. Therefore information on the vertical distribution of the scattering coefficient can be derived potentially from measurements of the time-depth dependence of depolarization in the backscattered laser pulse. The polarized technique was verified by field measurements conducted in the Middle Atlantic Bight of the western North Atlantic Ocean that were supported by in situ measurements of the beam attenuation coefficient. The airborne polarized lidar measured the time-depth dependence of the backscattered laser pulse in two orthogonal-polarized components. Vertical profiles of the scattering coefficient retrieved from the time-depth depolarization of the backscattered laser pulse were compared with measured profiles of the beam attenuation coefficient. The comparison showed that retrieved profiles of the scattering coefficient clearly reproduce the main features of the measured profiles of the beam attenuation coefficient. Underwater scattering layers were detected at depths of 20-25 m in turbid coastal waters. The improvement in dynamic range afforded by the polarized lidar technique offers a strong potential benefit for airborne lidar bathymetric applications.     

Daytime operation of a pure rotational Raman lidar by use of a Fabry-Perot interferometer

We propose to use a Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) in a pure rotational Raman lidar to isolate return signals that are due to pure rotational Raman scattering from atmospheric nitrogen against the sky background. The main idea of this instrumental approach is that a FPI is applied as a frequency comb filter with the transmission peaks accurately matched to a comb of practically equidistant lines of a pure rotational Raman spectrum (PRRS) of nitrogen molecules. Thus a matched FPI transmission comb cuts out the spectrally continuous sky background light from the spectral gaps between the PRRS lines of nitrogen molecules while it is transparent to light within narrow spectral intervals about these lines. As the width of the spectral gaps between the lines of the PRRS of nitrogen molecules is -114 times the width of an individual spectral line, cutting out of the sky background from these gaps drastically improves the signal-to-background ratio of the pure rotational Raman lidar returns. This application of the FPI enables one to achieve daytime temperature profiling in the atmosphere with a pure rotational Raman lidar in the visible and near-UV spectral regions. We present an analysis of application of the FPI to filtering out the pure rotational Raman lidar returns against the solar background. To demonstrate the feasibility of the approach proposed, we present temperature profiles acquired during a whole-day measurement session in which a Raman lidar equipped with a FPI was used. For comparison, temperature profiles acquired with Vaisala radiosondes launched from the measurement site are also presented.     

Wave optics simulation of atmospheric turbulence and reflective speckle effects in CO2 lidar

Laser speckle can influence lidar measurements from a diffuse hard target. Atmospheric optical turbulence will also affect the lidar return signal. We present a numerical simulation that models the propagation of a lidar beam and accounts for both reflective speckle and atmospheric turbulence effects. Our simulation is based on implementing a Huygens-Fresnel approximation to laser propagation. A series of phase screens, with the appropriate atmospheric statistical characteristics, are used to simulate the effect of atmospheric turbulence. A single random phase screen is used to simulate scattering of the entire beam from a rough surface. We compare the output of our numerical model with separate CO(2) lidar measurements of atmospheric turbulence and reflective speckle. We also compare the output of our model with separate analytical predictions for atmospheric turbulence and reflective speckle. Good agreement was found between the model and the experimental data. Good agreement was also found with analytical predictions. Finally, we present results of a simulation of the combined effects on a finite-aperture lidar system that are qualitatively consistent with previous experimental observations of increasing rms noise with increasing turbulence level.     

NASA multipurpose airborne DIAL system and measurements of ozone and aerosol profiles

An airborne differential absorption lidar (DIAL) system has been developed for the remote measurement of gas and aerosol profiles in the troposphere and lower stratosphere. The multipurpose DIAL system can operate from 280 to 1064 nm for measurements of ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, water vapor, temperature,pressure, and aerosol backscattering. The laser transmitter consists of two narrow linewidth Nd: YAG pumped dye lasers with automatic wavelength control. The DIAL wavelengths are transmitted with a 00-,usec temporal separation to reduce receiver system complexity. A coaxial receiver system is used to collect and optically separate the DIAL and aerosol lidar returns. Photomultiplier tubes detect the backscattered laser returns after optical filtering, and the analog signals from three tubes are digitized and stored on high-speed magnetic tape. Real-time gas concentration profiles or aerosol backscatter distributions are calculated and displayed for experiment control. Operational parameters for the airborne DIAL system are presented for measurements of ozone, water vapor, and aerosols in the 290-, 720-, and 600-nm wavelength regions, respectively. The first ozone profile measurements from an aircraft using the DIAL technique are discussed in this paper. Comparisons between DIAL and in situ ozone measurements show agreement to within +/-5 ppbv in the lower troposphere. Lidar aerosol data obtained simultaneously with DIAL ozone measurements are presented for a flight over Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay. DIAL system performance for profiling ozone in a tropopause folding experiment is evaluated, and the applications of the DIAL system to regional and global-scale tropospheric investigations are discussed.     

Boundary layer scattering measurements with a charge-coupled device camera lidar

A CCD-based bistatic lidar (CLidar) system has been developed and constructed to measure scattering in the atmospheric boundary layer. The system uses a CCD camera, wide-angle optics, and a laser. Imaging a vertical laser beam from the side allows high-altitude resolution in the boundary layer all the way to the ground. The dynamic range needed for the molecular signal is several orders of magnitude in the standard monostatic method, but only approximately 1 order of magnitude with the CLidar method. Other advantages of the Clidar method include low cost and simplicity. Observations at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, show excellent agreement with the modeled molecular-scattering signal. The scattering depends on angle (altitude) and the polarization plane of the laser.     

Description and evaluation of a tropospheric ozone lidar implemented on an existing lidar in the southern subtropics

Rayleigh-Mie lidar measurements of stratospheric temperature and aerosol profiles have been carried out at Reunion Island (southern tropics) since 1993. Since June 1998, an operational extension of the system is permitting additional measurements of tropospheric ozone to be made by differential absorption lidar. The emission wavelengths (289 and 316 nm) are obtained by stimulated Raman shifting of the fourth harmonic of a Nd:YAG laser in a high-pressure deuterium cell. A mosaic of four parabolic mirrors collects the backscattered signal, and the transmission is processed by the multiple fiber collector method. The altitude range of ozone profiles obtained with this system is 3?17 km. Technical details of this lidar system working in the southern tropics, comparisons of ozone lidar profiles with radiosondes, and scientific perspectives are presented. The significant lack of tropospheric ozone measurements in the tropical and equatorial regions, the particular scientific interest in these regions, and the altitude range of the ozone measurements to 16?17 km make this lidar supplement useful and its adaptation technically conceivable at many Rayleigh-Mie lidar stations.     

Distributed fiber temperature and strain sensor using coherent radio-frequency detection of spontaneous Brillouin scattering

A novel technique that enables coherent detection of spontaneous Brillouin scattering in the radio-frequency (<500 MHz) region with excellent long-term stability has been demonstrated for distributed measurements of temperature and strain in long fiber. An actively stabilized single-frequency Brillouin fiber laser with extremely low phase noise and intensity noise is used as a well-defined, frequency-shifted local oscillator for the heterodyne detection, yielding measurements of spontaneous Brillouin scattering with high frequency stability. Based on this approach, a highly stable real-time fiber sensor for distributed measurements of both temperature and strain over long fiber has been developed utilizing advanced digital signal processing techniques.     

Lead-vapor filters for high-spectral-resolution temperature lidar

The analysis of Rayleigh-scattered laser radiation with atomic-vapor filters used for temperature measurements is investigated. The choices for the filter material and the optimum parameter configuration for daytime measurements are presented. In laboratory experiments the backscattered radiation from synthetic air stimulated by a cw dye laser at 283 nm was analyzed with two lead-vapor cells in one oven. The effects of different parameters on the accuracy of the measurement are determined from both theory and experiment, and actual air-temperature measurements are presented. Calculations for a real lidar show not only the performance, but also the limitations, of such a measurement system.     

Low-altitude atmospheric wind measurement from the combined Mie and Rayleigh backscattering by Doppler lidar with an iodine filter

This paper briefly discusses the mobile ground-based incoherent Doppler wind lidar system, with iodine filters as receiving frequency discriminators, developed by the Ocean Remote Sensing Laboratory, Ocean University of Qingdao, China. The presented result of wind profiles in October and November 2000, retrieved from the combined Mie and Rayleigh backscattering, is the first report to our knowledge of wind measurements in the troposphere by such a system, where the required independent measurement of aerosol-scattering ratio can also be performed. A second iodine vapor filter was used to lock the laser to absolute frequency reference for both wind and aerosol-scattering ratio measurements. Intercomparison experiments of the lidar wind profile measurements were performed with pilot balloons. Results showed that the standard deviation of wind speed and wind direction, for the 2-4 km altitude range, were 0.985 m/s and 17.9 degrees, respectively.     

Determination of cloud effective particle size from the multiple-scattering effect on lidar integration-method temperature measurements

A method is presented that permits the determination of the cloud effective particle size from Raman- or Rayleigh-integration temperature measurements that exploits the dependence of the multiple-scattering contributions to the lidar signals from heights above the cloud on the particle size of the cloud. Independent temperature information is needed for the determination of size. By use of Raman-integration temperatures, the technique is applied to cirrus measurements. The magnitude of the multiple-scattering effect and the above-cloud lidar signal strength limit the method's range of applicability to cirrus optical depths from 0.1 to 0.5. Our work implies that records of stratosphere temperature obtained with lidar may be affected by multiple scattering in clouds up to heights of 30 km and beyond.     

Measurement of the lidar ratio for atmospheric aerosols with a 180 degrees backscatter nephelometer

Laser radar (lidar) can be used to estimate atmospheric extinction coefficients that are due to aerosols if the ratio between optical extinction and 180 degrees backscatter (the lidar ratio) at the laser wavelength is known or if Raman or high spectral resolution data are available. Most lidar instruments, however, do not have Raman or high spectral resolution capability, which makes knowledge of the lidar ratio essential. We have modified an integrating nephelometer, which measures the scattering component of light extinction, by addition of a backward-pointing laser light source such that the detected light corresponds to integrated scattering over 176-178 degrees at a common lidar wavelength of 532 nm. Mie calculations indicate that the detected quantity is an excellent proxy for 180 degrees backscatter. When combined with existing techniques for measuring total scattering and absorption by particles, the new device permits a direct determination of the lidar ratio. A four-point calibration, run by filling the enclosed sample volume with particle-free gases of a known scattering coefficient, indicates a linear response and calibration reproducibility to within 4%. The instrument has a detection limit of 1.5 x 10(-7) m(-1) sr(-1) (~10% of Rayleigh scattering by air at STP) for a 5-min average and is suitable for ground and mobile/airborne surveys. Initial field measurements yielded a lidar ratio of ~20 for marine aerosols and ~60-70 for continental aerosols, with an uncertainty of ~20%.