Bistatic LIDAR: A Tool for Characterizing Atmospheric Particulates: Part I---The Remote Sensing Problem

Abstract

The bistatic, Light Detection And Ranging, LIDAR technique for sensing atmospheric particulates is outlined, and analytical formulations are presented for characterizing both the intensity and polarization of the bistatic signals. Methods are presented on how to handle the remote sensing problem of extracting the particulate angular scattering parameters from the bistatic measurements. Examples are also presented which demonstrate that these methods can be practically applied at least for atmospheric conditions typical of Tucson, AZ.