In this work some features are revealed, simultaneously by LIDAR and contact facilities, of the aerosol pollutions near high-traffic sites in Sofia City. Such features of interest are the extinction coefficient of the aerosol ensembles and their mass concentration, as well as the shapes and sizes and the structure of the aerosol particles and their chemical composition and biological content. They outline possible negative effects of the aerosol pollutants on the human health. The experiments are conducted in the spring and summer, in different sites of interest in Sofia City. The results about the aerosol mass concentration-to-extinction calibration of the LIDAR constant, obtained in the spring and in the late spring and the summer, are consistent with each other and with the combined spring-and-summer result. Using electron microscopy, various aerosol samples are visualized resembling mineral dust particles, pollen, soot, and even microorganisms. The results from the analysis of the images obtained would serve as guidelines of further chemical and microbiological studies.
KEYWORDS: LIDAR, Signal to noise ratio, Atmospheric modeling, Atmospheric particles, Atmospheric optics, Near infrared, Aerosols, Atmospheric sensing, Backscatter, Signal detection
In the present work, Poisson-fluctuating lidar profiles are modeled statistically as obtained from clear and hazy atmospheres containing Sharan-dust-like layers. The shot-noise fluctuations are simulated in fact induced by the useful signal itself, the optical background, and the dark current in the photon detector. The profiles obtained for UV, VIS and NIR sensing radiations are compared and analyzed. It is shown that the best lidar images of Saharan dust layers are obtainable by using NIR sensing radiation. They are characterized by higher contrast and clarity. The images obtained by using UV or VIS radiation may be entirely masked by shot-noise and even by multiple-scattering due parasitic (bias and random) noise. To clarify the images obtained in this case, by lowering the random noise level, one should average, as shown, the lidar profiles over a series of laser shots and/or smooth them along the lidar line of sight. Certainly, this lowers the temporal and/or spatial resolution of sensing by UV and VIS radiation. Thus, the results obtained confirm and illustrate the advantages of the NIR wavelength range, when sensing dense compact aerosol objects, predicted previously by the mean profiles investigated of the lidar signal strength and signal-to-noise ratio.
The sensing laser radiation wavelength is one of the most significant factors conditioning the elastic lidar efficiency. Nevertheless, its role in the process of lidar sensing has not been investigated systematically so far. Therefore, the main purpose of the present work is to develop and perform an initial examination of an approach to solve this problem based on modeling the profile of the lidar return signal (the lidar profile) and evaluating, in a specific way, the corresponding profile of the measurement signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The measurement fluctuations are considered as mainly due to the Poisson shot noise that is intrinsic to the dark current and the photocurrent induced by the useful signal itself and the atmospheric background. The initial results obtained show for instance that for ground-based lidar facilities the maximum Rayleigh return signal is obtainable at wavelengths about 350nm. The roles are changed when sensing clouds using wavelength from 400nm to 1000-2000nm. Then, the longer wavelengths provide higher return power from clouds, and the effect is magnified in aerosol-loaded (and especially hazy) atmosphere. The results of such investigations are useful when selecting optimal lidar-design characteristics ensuring maximum brightness and contrast of the lidar-acquired images of specific aerosol strata and objects in the atmosphere.
Experimental measurements and theoretical description have been performed of the spatial intensity distribution of the backward radiative response of tissue-like Intralipid-20% dilutions in distilled water irradiated by a collimated near-infrared cw laser beam. The investigations performed are a first step toward a complete estimation of the feasibility and potentialities of a stationary one-sided linear-strategy biomedical tomography approach to detecting characteristic inclusions (inhomogeneities, say ill places) in homogeneous highly-scattering host media (healthy tissues). The experimental results obtained are in good agreement with the derived theoretical expressions that thus would be of importance for the development and numerical modeling of stationary tomography algorithms ensuring optimally accurate data processing and interpretation.
The experimental investigations on different aspects of optical tomography require the knowledge of the optical parameters of tissues and tissue-like phantoms in order to unambiguously interpret the experimental data and specify characteristic inhomogeneities in tissue diagnostics. The main optical parameters of interest are the absorption coefficient, the scattering, backscattering, and reduced-scattering coefficients, the total attenuation (extinction) coefficient and the anisotropy factor. In this work, we extend our investigations of the optical properties of tissuemimicking phantoms, such as Intralipid-20% fat emulsion, using an approach we have developed recently based on the peculiarities of laser radiation beams propagating through semi-infinite turbid media. The dependence of the total attenuation coefficient on the Intralipid concentration, for laser radiation wavelengths λ=405, 672, 850, and 1314 nm, is studied, by using a set of phantoms consisting of different dilutions of Intralipid in distilled water. The experimental results for the extinction are in agreement with our previous results and with empiric formulae found by other authors concerning the wavelength dependence of the scattering coefficient of Intralipid -10% and Intralipid - 20%. They are also in agreement with known data of the water absorptance. As a whole, the results obtained in this work confirm the consideration of the experimental phantoms as semi-infinite media. They also confirm and extend theoretical and experimental results obtained previously, and reveal advantages of using longer wavelengths for deeper diagnostics of tissues and mimic turbid media.
Physical analysis and mathematical description are given of the factors conditioning the formation and the fluctuation
statistics of the aerosol lidar signals. The considerations are based on the assumption of incoherent scattering from
aerosol particles occupying the “scattering laser-pulse volume” having specific cross-section and length. The influence
of the atmospheric refractive turbulence is also taken into account. Different types of statistics of the aerosol field and
different design parameters of the lidar system are considered as well, as essential factors determining the fluctuation
level and distribution. It is shown that the aerosol lidar signal fluctuations can indeed have nearly log-normal
distribution, as is frequently assumed, under determinate environment and lidar-design conditions including the
probability density distribution and the mean number and variance of the scattering aerosol particles, the temporal and
spatial correlation characteristics of the aerosol concentration, the refractive turbulence intensity, the radii of and the
distance between the scattering volume and the aperture of the lidar receiving optical system, etc. Thus, the modeling of
aerosol lidar signals and the interpretation of aerosol lidar data may be based on the assumption of log-normal statistics
of the signal fluctuations whose level is derived on the basis of reasonable physical concepts and determined by the
above-indicated conditions and parameters of concern.
The performed analysis reveals interesting and useful features of the distortions of the measured Thomson scattering lidar profile, and the corresponding recovered temperature and density profiles, due to convolution of the lidar response function with the maximum-resolved lidar profile obtainable at a delta-like system response. It is shown that in the case of a symmetric pulse response, far from the pedestal area at the plasma edge, the convolution does not distort the information about the smooth-enough line-of-sight distribution of the electron temperature and density. In the pedestal area such distortions exist. They concern mainly the steep density profiles and depend on the temperature profile steepness. In practice, the temperature profiles are slanting-enough around the pedestal. Then the center-of-mass wavelength and the fitting approaches provide the undistorted temperature profile, and the latter approach provides the density profile convolved with the response function. In the case of an asymmetric system response, distortions of the information about the density distribution exist along the whole line of sight within the plasma torus. They depend on the variability of the electron temperature and density profiles and could be minimal at relatively high temperatures, slanting-enough temperature profiles, and relatively near (the incident wavelength) receiving spectral intervals. Then, both above-mention approaches can be used to obtain the undistorted temperature and convolved density profiles. Under general conditions, deconvolution procedures are necessary for improving the recovery accuracy and resolution. The analytical conclusions deduced in the work are supported by numerical results.
The rms errors are investigated, analytically and by computer simulations, in the determination by Thomson scattering lidar of the electron temperature Te and concentration ne and the pressure in fusion plasmas, using fitting approach. Unlike previous such studies, we have taken into account the correlation between the fluctuations of the statistical estimates of the electron temperature and concentration. Analytical expressions of the errors as functions of the electron temperature are derived for the cases of log-linear and non-linear fitting procedures at a high measurement signal-tonoise ratio. Also performed are computer simulations of the nonlinear fitting procedure, which confirm the analytical results. It is shown that in the log-linear fitting procedure the correlation between the estimates of the electron temperature and concentration leads to an increase in the rms errors in determining the concentration and the pressure compared to the case of no correlation. In the non-linear fitting procedure, the same correlation increases the ne– measurement error while influencing only slightly the error in the determination of the pressure.
The propagation is investigated of a continuous laser beam through homogeneous tissue-like turbid media such as diluted
emulsions of Intralipid or milk having presumably sharply forward directed Henyey-Greenstein or Gaussian indicatrices.
The cross sectional radial distributions of the detected forward-propagating light power at different depths along the
beam axis in each medium of interest are experimentally determined. The detected-power spatial distribution, for both
the types of indicatrices, is also described analytically by a solution of the radiative transfer equation in the so-called
small-angle approximation. The experimental results are consistent with the analytical expressions obtained that are
shown to allow one to estimate the extinction ( αt), reduced-scattering (αrs) and absorption (αa) coefficients and the gfactor
of the investigated media. The values obtained of α quite reasonable and
behave, depending on the dilution turbidity, in a way observed formerly in other similar experiments. The comparative
analysis of the estimated characteristics of the dilutions shows that in the case of Henyey-Greenstein indicatrix we have a
smaller value of the g-factor and larger value of αrs with respect to the case of Gaussian indicatrix. At equal g-factors, in
the former case we shall have a narrower forward-propagating scattered-light beam with higher on-axis intensity as
compared with the latter case.
The potentialities are investigated, by statistical modeling, of deconvolution techniques for high-resolution restoration of
electron temperature profiles in fusion plasma reactors like Joint European Torus (JET) measured by Thomson scattering
lidar using the center-of-mass wavelength approach. The sensing laser pulse shape and the receiving-system response
function are assumed to be exponentially-shaped. The plasma light background influence is taken into account as well as
the Poisson fluctuations of the photoelectron number after the photocathode enhanced in the process of cascade
multiplying in the employed microchannel photomultiplier tube. It is shown that the Fourier-deconvolution of the
measured long-pulse (lidar-response-convolved) lidar profiles, at relatively high and low signal-to-noise ratios, ensures a
higher accuracy of recovering the electron temperature profiles with three times higher range resolution compared to the
case without deconvolution. The final resolution scale is determined by the width of the window of an optimum
monotone sharp-cutoff digital noise-suppressing (noise-controlling) filter applied to the measured lidar profiles.
KEYWORDS: Tellurium, LIDAR, Plasmas, Signal to noise ratio, Error analysis, Photodetectors, Photon counting, Thomson scattering, Signal detection, Monte Carlo methods
Two new approaches are proposed for determination by Thomson scattering lidar of the electron temperature in
thermonuclear fusion plasmas. They are based on an analysis of the relativistic Thomson scattering spectrum. One of
them is based on the unambiguous temperature dependence of the ratio of the return-signal powers of two spectral
regions. The second approach is based on the unambiguous temperature dependence of the "center-of-mass wavelength"
of the lidar-return spectrum. Analytical expressions are derived of the corresponding errors in the determination of the
electron temperature. Their validity is confirmed by computer simulations. On the basis of the theoretical expressions a
comparison is performed between the potential accuracies of the new methods and the routine fitting approach. As a
result it is shown that the new approaches would have comparable efficiency with the fitting approach. Thus the three
(the fitting and the novel) approaches may be used for mutually validating the results obtained for the electron
temperature. They may be used as well for distinguishing the real inhomogeneities in the recovered temperature profiles
from apparent ones due to statistical fluctuations. The novel approaches may also have some practical advantages
consisting of the simple, clear and stable measurement procedure without any hypotheses or other considerations about
the weight or the variance of the experimental data or the goodness of the fit.
The efficiency is studied of some applications of a recently developed lidar-type gamma-ray tomography approach for non-destructive evaluation of dense media. The approach consists in time-to-range resolved detection of the Compton returns from the probed object (irradiated by annihilation gamma-photon sensing beams) and data processing based on a lidar-type equation and intended for determination of the extinction and backscattering profiles along the line of sight. The concrete purpose of the work is to reveal by statistical modeling the capabilities, under Poisson noise conditions, of investigating underground layers and detecting low-contrast ingredients such as plastic landmines in soil. The results from simulations show that the method is capable of finding and identifying down to 5 % density-contrast ingredients in soil, at depths to 20 cm, with spatial resolution of 1 to 10 mm, for measurement time of 10 to 1000 s and activity of the gamma-ray source of 50 - 300 mCi. So, the method could be successfully used for examination of ground for landmines.
KEYWORDS: Tissues, Breast, Signal attenuation, Optical tomography, LIDAR, Signal detection, In vivo imaging, Scattering, Picosecond phenomena, Backscatter
The potentialities are investigated of a single-sided optical tomography approach based on lidar principle. Concretely, the informative depth of sensing is estimated that outlines the underside area in the probed object where one could reveal inhomogeneities with some desirable contrast. The sensing radiation is supposed to consist of picosecond laser pulses with pulse repetition rate of ~ 10 MHz and optimum wavelength of 800 nm. The maximum permissible skin exposure is considered as determinant. The longitudinal and the transversal resolution intervals are chosen to be 2 mm and 3 mm (or 1 cm), respectively. It is shown that, under the above described conditions, inhomogeneities with contrast 1-10 % would be detected at depths of 1 to 4 cm, depending mainly on the values of the attenuation coefficient chosen here to vary correspondingly from 1.4 mm-1 to 0.4 mm-1.
The influence is simulated of the atmospheric turbulent motion on the character and the accuracy of the radial velocity profiles recovered by using a high-range-resolution coherent-Doppler-lidar approach we have developed recently. The simulations are based on an original statistical spatio-temporal model of the turbulent radial-velocity fluctuations supposed to have a von-Karman-like spectrum that closely approximates the well-known Kolmogorov-Obulkhov spectrum. The results from the simulations confirm the basic conclusions we have analytically deduced formerly about the character of the recovered radial velocity profiles, depending on the duration of the lidar measurement procedure. In this way the model adequacy is also substantiated.
The main purpose of the study is to estimate the root-mean-square signal-to-noise ratio (rmsSNR) characterizing the coherent heterodyne detection of aerosol-backscattered lidar returns influenced by the turbulent fluctuations of the refrative index in the atmosphere. A general expression is obtained heuristically that describes the rmsSNR as depending on (generally turbulence-affected) the return-intensity relative variance and the ratio of the coherence area of the lidar return to the receiving-aperture area. On the basis of the expression obtained, the rmsSNR is estimated as a function of the distance (of the scattering volume) along the line of sight at different values of the wavelength of the sensing radiation, the receiving-aperture radius, the transmitted beam-pulse radius, and the refractive-index turbulent parameter Cn2. It is shown that the rmsSNR values obtained at different distances under different experimental conditions are mostly near the unity, and the coherent heterodyne lidar signal should have correspondingly circular complex Gaussian statistics.
The influence is investigated quantitatively of the velocity fluctuations in turbulent atmosphere on the formation of the autocovariance of coherent heterodyne aerosol lidar signals. A multishot, high pulse repetition rate lidar operation is supposed. The limit cases of long-term and short-term averaging are especially considered, when the observation (data accumulation) time is respectively much larger or much less than the correlation time of the fluctuation process. As a result, the intuitive conception is proved and illustrated quatitatively that a long-term averaging, under stationary conditions, allows one to obtain (on the basis of the autocovariance) a range-resolved estimate of the parent population mean Doppler-velocity profile; a short-term averaging allows one to determine a (near) instantaneous range-resolved Doppler-velocity profile.
The performance is considered of some coherent-lidar inverse techniques for retrieving high-resolution Doppler-velocity profiles, with a resolution cell that is far below the pulse length and even of the order of the sampling interval. The speckle noise influence on the retrieved Doppler velocity profiles is investigated as a function of the lidar pulse length, the data sampling interval, the ratio between them, and as a whole, of the lidar radiation wavelength. It is shown that at a constant Doppler-velocity sensitivity the speckle noise error increases with the increase of the pulse length and the decrease of the sampling interval. Moreover, a similarity relation is established consisting in that the level of the error is practically invariable when the ratio of the pulse length to the sampling interval is retained. The results obtained lead to the conclusion that shorter- wavelength lidar radiation should be used not only to retain a good Doppler-velocity sensitivity at shorter pulse lengths, but to retain as well a satisfactorily high accuracy of retrieving the Doppler-velocity profiles, with proportionally shorter range resolution cell.
The image quality of the laser sounding of distant objects is limited mainly by the resolution of the optical system 'a telescopic objective -- a turbulent layer.' Fried formulated a theoretical expression concerning the system's resolution, but he assumed a diffraction-limited objective. Our goal here is to increase the estimation accuracy of the resolution of lidar optical systems, using the measured in advance resolution of the receiving objective. We show the possibility to substitute the maximum angular frequency of a diffraction- limited objective, in the expression of the optical transfer function, by the measured angular frequency of the actual objective. We propose a method, based on measuring the common resolution of the system 'a lidar telescope -- a turbulent layer,' for estimating the structural constant Cn2 of the turbulence. We have also calculated numerically the resolution of such a system for one-kilometer turbulent layer.
KEYWORDS: Magnetism, Signal detection, Absorption, Signal to noise ratio, Nonlinear optics, Polarization, Shape analysis, Interference (communication), Luminescence, Correlation function
A nonlinear Hanle effect on the 23 P yields 33 D HeI transition has been investigated. The experiment was performed in way to eliminate from the signal the contribution of the population dependence on the magnetic field. The shapes and widths of the Hanle curves were analyzed for different saturation parameters. The signal arises from two nonresolved He transitions-the 23P2 yields33D2 and the 23P2 yields 33D3. Cross-correlation analysis was suggested to analyze the contribution of a low intensity optical signal to the main experimental curve.
The feasibilities of a new approach for improving the resolution of coherent Doppler lidars, compared with the known PP-estimator-based approach, are investigated by computer simulations in the case of rectangular laser pulses. This approach consists in employing inverse techniques for retrieving the Doppler-velocity profile on the basis of known pulse shape and estimated statistically autocovariance of the heterodyne-signal profile. The possibility is demonstrated to achieve a spatial resolution cell that is much shorter than the pulse length.
The feasibility is estimated of an approach for measuring the atmospheric wind velocity by spatial filtration of moving turbulence-induced cross-section speckle structure of a propagating laser beam. It is shown that there are some optimum relations between the atmospheric conditions (turbulence intensity, transversal wind velocity) and the experimental arrangement parameters (characteristics of the laser beam, receiving optical system, spatial filter, beam propagation distance etc.), that ensure a maximum measuring sensitivity.
A type of exponentially-shaped sensing laser pulses is shown to lead to simple, accurate, and fast deconvolution algorithms for improving the lidar resolution. In this way the possibility is pointed out and illustrated to achieve accurate and fast investigation of the fine spatial structure of atmospheric and other objects by use of controlled, well-defined and reproducible pulses of the sensing radiation.
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