Comparison of an Fe Boltzmann temperature Lidar with a Na narrow-band lidar

The modeled performance of an Fe Boltzmann temperature Lidar system is comp ared with existing Na narrow-band temperature techniques. The Fe Boltzmann technique employs mesospheric Fe as a fluorescence tracer and relies on the temperature dependence of the population difference of two closely spaced Fe transitions. The relative performance of the new technique is compared w ith an existing Na narrowband temperature technique, and a link analysis is performed with measured data for both Na and Fe. It is shown that for curr ently available laser technology the two systems yield similar performance but the Fe system allows for the use of more broadband lasers. (C) 1998 Opt ical Society of America OCIS codes: 280.0280, 280.3640, 010.3640.