Tunable 21-μm Ho lidar for simultaneous range-resolved measurements of atmospheric water vapor and aerosol backscatter profiles

Abstract

An eye-safe, tunable differential-absorption lidar system has been developed for the range-resolved measurement of aerosol backscatter and water vapor in the atmosphere. The lidar uses a flash-lamp-pumped, qswitched, 10-mJ solid-state Ho:YSGG laser that is continuously tunable over a 20cm(-1) wavelength range near 2.084 microm. Both path-averaged and range-resolved measurements were performed with the Ho differential-absorption lidar system. Preliminary measurements have been made of the temporal variation of atmospheric aerosol backscatter and water-vapor profiles at ranges out to 1 km. These results indicate that the Ho lidar has the potential for the eye-safe remote sensing of atmospheric water vapor and backscatter profiles at longer ranges if suitably enhanced in laser power and laser linewidth.