Abstract
An innovative, ground-based bistatic lidar receiver to measure aerosol scattering in the atmospheric boundary layer has been developed and tested for proof-of-concept. The raster-mirror designs have greater than two orders of magnitude light gathering capability, and higher altitude resolution than the design used in Barnes et. al., thus allowing the use of lower power eye safe lasers. The design is based on dividing the wide 100° vertical field of view into several sectors, using 1-D rastering of mirrors and parallel imaging of the laser light scattered from each sector onto one CCD while employing a single narrow angle-of-view objective. The system is applicable for simultaneous measurements of several laser beams to obtain spectral, spatial, and temporal information about the atmosphere. Using an off-axis parabolic mirror objective eliminates chromatic aberrations, making the system employable in a broad spectral range from IR to UV. The advantages of the proposed technology are: the ability to control the dynamic range of the registered signal, the superior height resolution of 14 mm/pixel at the ground level, and 175m/pixel at 20km altitude, low cost, and simplicity. The bistatic CLidar receiver will include automatic system feedback and self-calibration. The system will be developed to accommodate daytime operational conditions.
