Standoff Aerosol Size Determination based on Multiple-Field-Of-View of Elastic Scattering

Abstract

Multiple-Field-Of-View (MFOV) lidar can be used to characterize the size and optical depth of low concentration bioaerosol clouds. The concept relies on the measurement of the forward scattered light by using the background aerosols at various distances at the back of a sub-visible cloud. It also relies on the subtraction of the background aerosol forward scattering contribution and on partial attenuation of the first order backscattering using a low transmission mask. The validity of the concept developed to retrieve with a good precision the effective diameter and the optical depth of low concentration bioaerosol clouds is illustrated using simulation results and experimental MFOV lidar measurements. Calculations are also done to show that the method presented can be extending to small optical depth clouds retrieval.