Abstract

In a number of remote sensing applications, a laser pulse is transmitted into the atmosphere where it is scattered by aerosol particles. The backscattered portion is collected by the receiver and the detected signal is processed to obtain the quantity of interest. Since atmospheric aerosols are typically separated by many wavelengths of the illuminating light, laser speckle can be observed in the backscattered signal. A number of physical processes combine to determine the characteristics of the aerosol speckle pattern. The most important of these are discussed, along with their effects on the correlation properties of the backscattered light.

© 1983 Optical Society of America