EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF TRANSMITTAN CE OF OPTICAL RADIATION PULSES THROUGH CLOUDS

Amplitude and time characteristics (ATC) of optical pulses transmitted vertically through stratified clouds with the optical thickness tau l ess-than-or-equal-to 25 have been determined. An airborne laser source of radiation with the wavelength of 0.532 mu and angular width 10-deg rees was used during the experiment. The receiving angles of the earth viewing system used were equal to 5-degrees and 20-degrees, respectiv ely, time resolution of the transmitter-receiver system was equal to 3 0 ns. A comparison has been, made of the experimental results with the numerical results obtained using Monte-Carlo method. It was shown tha t ATCs were mainly governed by optical thicknesses of the clouds. The ATC variations observed for different types of clouds with the same ta u were explained by the influence of the geometrical factors (heights and thicknesses of cloud layers).