Abstract

During the last 2 years, major advances have taken place in the development and application of airborne lidar systems in the study of large-scale atmospheric processes. The first simultaneous measurements of ozone (O₃) and aerosol distributions above and below an aircraft were made in tropospheric investigations in the Arctic during the summer of 1988 as part of the NASA Global Tropospheric Experiment. During the 1989 Airborne Arctic Stratospheric Experiment, the first large-scale distributions of O₃ and polar stratospheric clouds (at multiple laser wavelengths) were obtained with an airborne lidar system on long-range flights into the wintertime polar vortex. In addition, the first water vapor (H₂O) profile measurements were obtained using an Alexandrite laser in an airborne differential absorption lidar (DIAL) system over the Atlantic during the summer of 1989.

© 1990 Optical Society of America