Abstract

The atmospheric pressure and temperature fields are two of the basic variables of fundamental importance in meteorology, climate studies, and for all scales of weather forecasting. The pressure field is used to describe the state of the atmosphere, frontal characteristics and to determine mass movement. The temperature field is needed for determining tropopause height, the depth and structure of the planetary boundary layer, and frontal and air mass characteristics. This paper presents an analysis of the sensitivity and instrumental parameters needed for lidar differential absorption (DIAL) measurements of pressure and temperature from the Earth Observing System (EOS) satellite. The proposed Lidar Atmospheric Sounder and Altimeter (LASA) facility on the EOS platform will allow global measurements of pressure and temperature profiles from a 700 km polar orbit.

© 1987 Optical Society of America