Implementation Of Micropulse Lidar at 4.5 μm and 1.5 μm for Aerosol and Cloud Study

Abstract

Identifying and quantifying ambient aerosols and their interactions with clouds are important for air-quality and climate studies. Advances in infrared technologies on fiber lasers, quantum cascade lasers and IR detectors have made developing micro-pulse (low energy) IR lidar systems operating in the infrared spectral range feasible. We present in this contribution a micropulse dual channel (IR wavelength) lidar system for studying aerosol and cloud optical properties. The system operates at 1.545 μm (6472.5 cm-1) and at 4.55 μm (2197.8 cm-1) with high repetition rates and microjoule pulses. The system is intended to be coupled with an existing UV, visible, near infrared lidar system at the city college of New York, part of the CREST lidar network Preliminary backscattered signals from this system are here presented and compared to SNR simulation.