Abstract

A laser radar system can provide spatially resolved concentration data of major and minor atmospheric species, and it is, therefore, well suited to pollution surveillance. In particular, a CO₂ lidar based on the differential absorption lidar (DIAL) technique appears to be a flexible instrument to discriminate among a large number of molecular components due to the richness of specific absorption lines in the 9-12-μm atmospheric window. These can be matched by a corresponding large number of laser emission lines (more than 60 in the 9- and 10-μm branches).

© 1989 Optical Society of America