Calibration of Multi-wavelength Raman Polarization Lidar

Abstract

The current high energy cosmic ray detection technology, including Cherenkov telescopes and fluorescence detector, is mainly limited by uncertainties in the determination of atmospheric parameters. LIDARs are currently the best suited technology to get atmospheric parameters for the atmosphere correction of high energy cosmic ray observatory data with one single instrument. A new Multi-wavelength Raman Polarization Lidar (AMPLE) has been developed and introduced in this paper. In order to provide precise and accurate results, lidar system should be calibrated before using for atmosphere correction in cosmic rays observatory. The calibration methods and results of AMPLE have been presented, including overlap function calibration, multi-wavelength channel calibration, depolarization calibration. In order to verify the accuracy of parameter measured by AMPLE lidar system, the comparison with radio sounder and sun-photometer has been done. The results show AMPLE lidar system has the ability to precisely measure the vertical profile of the atmosphere properties without any assumption and is a good choice for cosmic rays observatory to get atmosphere correction information.