Raman Lidar Observations: Simultaneous Measurements of Water Vapor, Temperature and Aerosol Vertical Profiles, Part I.

Abstract

A Raman lidar was developed to observe vertical profiles of water vapor, temperature and aerosols. The lidar system can detect signal from 5 detectors simultaneously. Two vibrational Raman backscattering echoes from H 2 O and N 2 (or O 2 ) excited by Nd:YAG 3rd harmonics wavelength (355 nm) are used to observe the profiles of water vapor mixing ratio and atmospheric temperature (or density). Nd:YAG fundamental and 2nd harmonics wavelengths (1064 and 532 nm) are used to observe backscattering coefficient profiles of aerosols and clouds at these wavelengths. The scattering at 532 nm is observed in parallel and perpendicular components corresponding to the linear polarization plane of the transmitted linearly-polarized laser pulse to observe depolarization ratio profiles. Observed water vapor and temperature distributions coincide with the simultaneously observed radiosonde sounding data excellently. The Raman lidar makes it possible to observe the vertical profiles of water vapor, temperature, aerosols, and clouds simultaneously.