Abstract

The DFVLR Lidar ALEX F1 is a conventional aerosol lidar mounted on a French Falcon 20, a commercially available 13 passenger aircraft, which was modified for applications in meteorological research. The lidar is mounted above a 50 cm diameter window in the bottom of the aircraft, pointing vertically downward. The light source is a Nd-YAG laser of about 350 mJ output energy at the fundamental and simultaneously 120 mJ at the doubled wavelength. The maximum rep. rate is 10 Hz. For most applications it is limited to 5 Hz by the maximum data flow which can be accepted by the data management system and the tape recorder. Corresponding to a typical speed of 100 m/sec of the aircraft, the horizontal resolution is 20 m, and the vertical resolution is 15 m. For one wavelength operation the resolution can be improved by a factor of 2 horizontally and a factor of 10 vertically. The system was described in a paper given at the 9th ILRC, 1979. Some measurements were presented at the 10th ILRC, 1980.