Abstract

Since spring 1981, the Infrared Doppler Lidar program area of NOAA's Wave Propagation Laboratory has operated a pulsed coherent CO₂ lidar in a variety of remote sensing applications. Designed to demonstrate the utility of coherent lidar technology as an effective tool for remote profiling of winds in the clear air, the system has also been used to measure aerosol backscatter coefficients aloft, examine statistical properties of the aerosol and hard target backscattered signals, and determine the effect of atmospheric turbulence on system performance.