Abstract
A solution to the single-scattering lidar equation to infer optical extinction, liquid water content W, and visibility in a fog through a monostatic pulsed lidar, requires the use of the relations, and combinations of them, between backscattering coefficient β, extinction coefficient σ, and W. To this end, β and σ have been computed for 239 droplet size spectra and forty wavelengths from 0.25 to 12 μm, together with W, and the three relations β vs σ, W vs σ, and σ(0.55 μm) vs σ have been determined. The analysis of their behavior with wavelength shows that (1) the relation β vs σ is mostly reliable in the λ = 0.25–2-μm region, where the dispersion of the β values around the best-fit curve is within 20%; (2) the relation W vs σ is generally not well verified (the dispersion is centered around 30%), and when used in connection with the β vs σ relation to infer liquid water content, their joint dispersion PD is always greater than 20%; (3) the relation σ(0.55 μm) vs σ is well verified in the region λ = 0.25–2 μm (dispersion within 15%), and when used in connection with the β vs σ relation to infer visibility PD appears to be minimum at λ ≅ 0.35 μm (PD = 4.7%).
© 1991 Optical Society of America
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