Role of excited atoms in Lidar measurements of the middle and upper atmosphere

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a lidar study of the atmosphere in the altitude region of 25-400 km, obtained at the lidar station of Kamchatka in 2008-2016. The development of methods for lidar measurements and signal processing is discussed. The method that takes into account the aftereffects of photoelectric multipliers and the technique to measure the background signal is described. These tools allow the authors to include the mesosphere and the upper atmosphere into the altitude region investigated by the lidar method. The results of the investigation of the backscattering lidar signal from the altitude region of 100-400 km caused by the resonance scattering on exited components of upper atmosphere are discussed.

Keywords

• atmosphere
• lidar
• stratosphere
• mesosphere
• scattering
• sounding