A Time-Division Multifrequency Wind Lidar with High Spatial Resolution and Extended Detection Range

Limited by the achievable pulse peak power, narrowing the transmitted pulsewidth to improve the spatial resolution would reduce the output power of wind Lidar, thereby decreasing the detection range. To solve this dilemma, a time-division multifrequency wind Lidar (TDMWL) is proposed with a long pulse duration consisting of consecutive multiple subpulses at different frequencies. Different detection ranges can be separated by different downconverted frequencies. The accumulation of multifrequency spectra enlarges the output power, while the width of the subpulse determines the spatial resolution. In the experiment, with a subpulse width of 200 ns, the detection range is increased from 750 to above 1200 m by accumulating six frequencies, proving the potential of TDMWL in measuring longer range without deteriorating the spatial resolution.