Aerosol Measurements in the Tropo- and Stratosphere by Spectral Splitting of Rayleigh and Mie Signals Within a Compact Lidar of 1 M3

Doppler lidars with daylight capability are challenging systems because of the small field of view (FOV), spectral filtering, and other additional subsystems required compared to observations at night. A universal Doppler lidar platform with all the required technologies for automatic operation is assembled. By combining a novel narrow-bandwidth pulsed laser (FWHM similar to 3 MHz) and a matched interferometer (FWHM similar to 7.5 MHz) the backscattered signals from molecules and aerosols are separated into two channels within the receiver. By tuning the frequency of the pulsed laser from pulse to pulse with sub-MHz accuracy relative to the interferometer, Doppler-aerosol measurements with largely reduced Rayleigh-signal allow aerosol measurements from ground to similar to 25 km altitude, including Doppler-wind measurements from the Doppler-shift. The compact lidar (1m(3)) is built for automatic 24/7 operation and comprises a novel diode-pumped alexandrite ring-laser, a 50 cm-telescope and a receiver for solar background free aerosol measurements. The combination of cost-efficient design and fast assembling of such a system allows the construction of a Doppler lidar network with identical units. Such a network can address a wide range of horizontal and vertical scales.