AbstractActive remote sensing represents a promising technology to accurately measure the atmospheric concentration of the climate‐relevant trace gases carbon dioxide and methane. For this application, frequency stabilized laser sources with high pulse energy emitting at specific absorption lines around 1.6 μm wavelength are required. While Raman frequency conversion of high power solid‐state laser systems provides sources suitable for CO2 detection, compact resonantly pumped Er:YAG lasers are demonstrated to be feasible for CH4 absorption measurements.