Identification

Title

Modeling the performance of a diode laser-based (DLB) micro-pulse differential absorption lidar (MPD) for temperature profiling in the lower troposphere

Abstract

Ground-based, network-deployable remote sensing instruments for thermodynamic profiling in the lower troposphere are needed by the atmospheric science research community. The recent development of a low-cost diode-laser-based (DLB) micro-pulse differential absorption lidar (DIAL) has begun to address the need for ground-based remote sensing instruments for water vapor profiling in the lower troposphere. Now, taking advantage of the broad spectral coverage of the DLB architecture, an enhancement to the water vapor micro-pulse DIAL (MPD) instrument is proposed to enable atmospheric temperature profiling. The new instrument is based on measuring a temperature-dependent oxygen (O-2) absorption coefficient and using this to retrieve the range-resolved temperature profile. In this paper, a retrieval method is proposed based on the recently developed perturbative solution to the DIAL equation that takes into account the Doppler broadening of the molecularly backscattered signal. This perturbative solution relies on an ancillary high spectral resolution lidar (HSRL) measurement of the backscatter ratio. Data from an operational water vapor MPD combined with a DLB-HSRL were used to create an atmosphere model, from which return signals for the O-2-MPD were generated. The perturbative retrieval was then applied to these data and a comparison of the retrieved temperature and the model temperature profile allowed the efficacy of retrieval to be evaluated. The results indicate that the temperature profile may be retrieved from a theoretical O-2-MPD instrument with a +/- 1 K accuracy up to 2.5 km and +/- 3 K accuracy up to 4.5 km with a 150 m range resolution and 30-minute averaging time. Using data from a recently developed O-2-MPD in combination with a WV-MPD, and a DLB-HSRL, an initial temperature retrieval is demonstrated. The results of this initial demonstration are consistent with the performance modeling.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7vx0knr

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2019-11-11T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

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Conformity

Data format

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version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Copyright 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement.

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2025-07-11T19:24:26.086308

Metadata language

eng; USA