Design and development of multiwavelength Mie-Polarization-Raman aerosol lidar system

Atmospheric aerosols play a major role in many atmospheric processes concerning the earth's radiation budget, air quality, clouds and percipitation, and atmospheric chemistry. A multiwavelength Mie-Polarization-Raman lidar system is developing at Shandong Academy of Sciences Institute of Oceanorgraphic Instrumentation (SDIOI), which is used for the profiling of optical and physical aerosol properties. This system is specifically designed for characterizing marine aerosol which consists of a complex mix of different aerosol types. The aerosol lidar consists of a tripled Nd:YAG laser with three wavelengths, 30 cm telescope, six receiver channels and data acquistion subsystem. It provides particle backscatter coefficients at 355, 532 and 1064 nm (3 beta), extinction coefficients at 355 and 532 nm (2 alpha), and depolarization ratio (sigma). There are two Raman channels to collect the Raman signals backscattered by nitrogen molecules at 607 nm and by water vapor moecules at 407 nm. In this paper, we mainly describe the details of the optical setup, structure and performance of the lidar system. At last, the simulated signals based on the specifications are presented to demonstrate the capabilities of the lidar system.