COMBINED RAMAN LIDAR FOR AEROSOL, OZONE, AND MOISTURE MEASUREMENTS

A combined Raman elastic-backscatter lidar for tropospheric profiling of moisture, ozone, and aerosols and stratospheric profiling of ozone, aerosols, and temperature is presented. A XeCl excimer and a frequenc y-tripled Nd:YAG laser serve as light sources. An eight-channel interf erence-filter polychromator is used as the receiver. Water vapor, part icle extinction and backscatter coefficients, and the particle lidar r atio are determined by the use of the Raman-lidar technique. For depol arization studies the parallel- and cross-polarized components of the 355-nm elastic-backscatter signal are detected. Ozone can be derived f rom the Raman nitrogen channels as well as from the elastic-backscatte r channels by applying the Raman-DIAL and the DIAL technique, respecti vely. The temperature is obtained from the Raman and Rayleigh signals in the particle-free stratosphere. The apparatus is described in detai l. Measurement examples showing the capabilities of the new system are given. (C) 1996 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.