Using a bistatic camera lidar to profile aerosols influenced by a local source of pollution

Details

• Journal Title:
  Laser Radar Technology and Applications XXIII
• Personal Author:
  Kabir, Amin ; Sharma, Nimmi C. ; Butt, Jalal ; Bridgewater, Mauricio ; Barnes, John E.
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; ESRL (Earth System Research Laboratory)
• Description:
  A wide-angle CCD camera based bistatic lidar (CLidar) is used to monitor aerosol profiles in the atmosphere of The Bahamas. A 2-Watt CW laser beam ranging from ground to zenith is captured in a single image by a camera fitted with a fisheye lens which is placed at a different location from the laser. Scattering altitude is determined simply from the geometry of the CLidar in contrast to monostatic lidar which requires expensive electronics to measure the time of flight of the returned signal. Each image contains both molecular and aerosol single angle scattering. A cloud free image is used to normalize the signal intensity to a model of molecular scattering at a region free of aerosol layer. Then molecular portion is subtracted to retrieve aerosol side scattering. An aerosol phase function was assumed to convert side scatter to aerosol extinction. Corrections due to transmission effects are then iteratively calculated until convergence is reached. Aerosol extinction drops off sharply above 1 km indicating the planetary boundary level which agrees well with the relative humidity measurements obtained from the radiosonde data of Nassau airport observation. Additionally, aerosols originated from the smoke of a charcoal grill operating near experimental site were efficiently detected near ground levels. Aerosol extinction at 20 m above sea level is 0.085 km-1 during grilling compared to 0.03 km-1 during no grilling. Excellent altitude resolution of the CLidar at the ground levels allows its use for in-situ environmental characterization without the overlap effects faced when using traditional lidar.
• Source:
  Laser Radar Technology and Applications XXIII, 68, 19
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2303544
• Format:
  pdf
• Publisher:
  SPIE
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Rights Information:
  Other
• Compliance:
  Library
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:88f121c83aa865b46e5b133b2875b82f60a7539915e330784dcd46dda1d5c2380ac066afe4c740bd34d7a075832571e7df9fb8e187d88b5edb07e22f6700911b
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/69075/noaa_69075_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 626.41 KB ]