Abstract

During the summer of 1985, the Wave Propagation Laboratory of NOAA upgraded its pulsed CO₂ Doppler lidar with a new transceiver. Previously, the system had operated with a hybrid TEA transmitter, producing approximately 100 mJ of energy per pulse at a 10 Hz pulse repetition frequency (prf). The upgraded transceiver, built by Spectra Technologies, Incorporated, of Bellevue, Washington, uses an injection-locked, unstable resonator configuration to produce frequency-stable pulses with 2 J of energy per pulse; maximum prf of the injection-locked system is 50 Hz. The larger pulse energy and higher pulse repetition frequency make the new lidar considerably more valuable for investigations of transient atmospheric phenomena and tropospheric backscatter climatology.

© 1987 Optical Society of America