Abstract

Backscatter of several Earth surfaces was characterized in the laboratory as a function of incidence angle with a focused continuous-wave 9.1-μm CO₂ Doppler lidar for use as possible calibration targets. Some targets showed negligible angular dependence, while others showed a slight increase with decreasing angle. The Earth-surface signal measured over the complex Californian terrain during a 1995 NASA airborne mission compared well with laboratory data. Distributions of the Earth’s surface signal shows that the lidar efficiency can be estimated with a fair degree of accuracy, preferably with uniform Earth-surface targets during flight for airborne or space-based lidar.

© 1998 Optical Society of America

Radiometric calibration of an airborne CO₂ pulsed Doppler lidar with a natural Earth surface

Dean R. Cutten, Jeffry Rothermel, Maurice A. Jarzembski, R. Michael Hardesty, James N. Howell, David M. Tratt, and Vandana Srivastava
Appl. Opt. 41(18) 3530-3537 (2002)

Vertical variability of aerosol backscatter from an airborne-focused continuous-wave CO₂ lidar at 9.1-µm wavelength

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Remote sensing of multi-level wind fields with high-energy airborne scanning coherent Doppler lidar

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Opt. Express 2(2) 40-50 (1998)

Airborne CO₂ coherent lidar for measurements of atmospheric aerosol and cloud backscatter

Robert T. Menzies and David M. Tratt
Appl. Opt. 33(24) 5698-5711 (1994)

Signal processing and calibration of continuous-wave focused CO₂ Doppler lidars for atmospheric backscatter measurement

Jeffry Rothermel, Diana M. Chambers, Maurice A. Jarzembski, Vandana Srivastava, David A. Bowdle, and William D. Jones
Appl. Opt. 35(12) 2083-2095 (1996)