Space borne and ground based lidars

Abstract

Lidar is an acronym for light detection and ranging. It is analogous to radar (radio detection and ranging., except that it is based on discrete light pulses and measured travel times. The advancement in both laser and detector technology along with improvements in data-acquisition and analysis techniques have made lidar a very reliable tool for active atmospheric remote sensing. With this advancement a lidar system can be employed to measure: (1. temperature (structure from ground to the thermosphere; diurnal/seasonal/interannual variations, etc.., (2. Wind (structure from ground to upper atmosphere; its variations, etc.., (3. Aerosols and clouds (distribution, extinction, composition, size, shape, and variations spatially and temporally. and (4. Constituents (O3, CO2, H2O, O2, N2+, He, metal atoms like Na, Fe, K, Ca, pollution, etc.. In this presentation we discuss the principles and applications of lidar. We further discuss some results we obtained from both ground based and space borne lidars. - Abstract as displayed in the - Abstract booklet. The presentation on the day may differ from the - Abstract.