Abstract

The wavelength, height, and geographical dependences, and the statistical description of the atmospheric aerosol backscatter coefficient continues to be an important, but largely unknown, area of research. Improved knowledge and understanding of aerosol characteristics is important in atmospheric science and in assessing the performance of various lidar remote sensing concepts such as DIAL measurements of atmospheric species and pollutants, and coherent Doppler lidar measurements of wind velocity and turbulence. Remote sensing using lidar systems is ideally suited to measure the backscatter data; from the ground, airplanes, ships, or space. However, calibration of the lidar aerosol backscatter data has only recently progressed to the point where errors under 50% may be achieved [1-5].

© 1987 Optical Society of America