New method of elaboration of the lidar signal

In lidar measurements noise and fluctuations strongly affect the results. T he reason is a rapid decrease of the signal-to-noise ratio with an increase of distance. The differential absorption lidar (DIAL) is particularly sens itive to the signal instabilities. In this paper we present a method of the signal acquisition that is suitable for registration of both large light f luxes and single photons. We also present new method of solution of the DIA L equations. Compared to the traditional algorithm used for signal elaborat ion our procedures are much more stable and they are able to increase the e ffective range of lidar measurements.