Towards Developing a Micropulse Differential Absorption Lidar to Measure Atmospheric Temperature

Abstract

It has generally been assumed that differential absorption lidar (DIAL) systems are incapable of measuring atmospheric temperature with useful accuracy. This assumption is a direct result of errors that arise in standard DIAL retrievals due to differential Rayleigh-Doppler broadening from aerosols and molecules. We present here, a combined high spectral resolution (HSRL) and DIAL system that addresses this identified source of uncertainty by measuring quantitative aerosol parameters as well as oxygen absorption parameters. This system, in combination with a perturbative retrieval method, accounts for the Rayleigh-Doppler broadening effects on the oxygen absorption. We describe this combined DIAL/HSRL system and retrieval to evaluate the first retrieval parameters exploring the likelihood that it is possible to measure atmospheric temperature using a DIAL system.