Rayleigh-Mie Doppler wind lidar for atmospheric measurements. II. Mie scattering effect, theory, and calibration

A theoretical and experimental study is conducted for the direct-detection Doppler Lidar developed by the Service d'Aeronomie du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Thanks to a specific design, the double-edge techn ique that applies primarily to Rayleigh scattering can also be employed in presence of aerosols backscatter. We focus on a careful estimate of the par ticle-induced error on the wind measurements. With a theoretical model for the Fabry-Perot interferometer and two sets of calibration measurements, th e true spectral properties of the interferometer and the calibration curves are recovered. Furthermore, the particle-induced error is estimated for va rying values of the scattering ratio at 532 nm. When applied to real atmosp heric signals, this error is shown to be negligible. A comparison between a ncillary data and the wind and backscatter ratio as retrieved from the Dopp ler lidar signals confirms our estimate. (C) 1999 Optical Society of Americ a.