A Study of the Characteristics of Highly Spatially Resolved CW-laser-based Aerosol Lidar

In this study we introduce a new method for high-spatial-resolution continuous wave (CW) aerosol lidar that has a high spatial resolution in the near field and a low spatial resolution at long distances. A normal lidar system uses a nanosecond-pulse laser and measures the round-trip TOF between the aerosol and laser to obtain range resolution. In this study, however, we propose a new type of spatially resolving aerosol lidar that uses laser-scattering images. Using a laser-light-scattering image, we have calculated the distance of each scattering aerosol image for a given pixel, and recovered the short-range aerosol extinction. For this purpose, we have calculated the distance image and the contribution range of the aerosol to the given one-pixel image, and finally we have calculated the extinction coefficients of the aerosol with range-resolved information. In the case of traditional aerosol lidar, we can only obtain the aerosol extinction coefficients above 400 m. Using our suggested method, it was possible to extend the range of the extinction coefficient lower then several tens of meters. Finally, we can remove the unknown short-range region of pulsed aerosol lidar using our method.