Narrow-hand, narrow-field-of-view Raman lidar with combined day and night capability for tropospheric water-vapor profile measurements

We describe a high-performance Raman lidar system with combined day and nig ht capability for tropospheric water-vapor profile measurements. The system incorporates high-performance UV interference filters and a narrow-band, d ual-held-of-view receiver for rejection of background sunlight. Daytime per formance has been demonstrated up to 5 km with 150-m vertical and Ei-min te mporal averaging. The nighttime performance is significantly better with me asurements routinely extending from 10 to 12 km with 75-m range resolution and a 5-min temporal average. We describe design issues for daytime operati on and a novel daytime calibration technique. (C) 1999 Optical Society of A merica.