Abstract

The results from a recent ESA study /1/ about applications of lidars for relevant measurements for meteorology and climatology from future earth observation satellites are presented. In the course of the study the conceptual design for a spaceborne lidar for measurements from operational observation satellites (orbit height 800 km) was worked out. It features a modular design that provides a large growth potential: the basic version is a simple backscatter lidar to measure cloud-top heights as well as density and distribution of subvisible clouds and aerosol layers. In later phases, additional equipment can be incoporated to perform the more complex DIAL measurements for humidity /2/, pressure /3/ and temperature profiling /4/.

© 1985 Optical Society of America