Differential discrimination technique for incoherent Doppler lidar to measure atmospheric wind and backscatter ratio

A new incoherent Doppler lidar scheme is proposed using a high resolution Mach-Zehnder interferometer discriminator with sinusoidal transmission functions. A two-channel differential discrimination technique is developed which provides high sensitive velocity measurement. The aerosol and molecular backscatter signals can be separately measured and the backscatter ratio obtained. Principle of the measurement is described and the characteristics of this technique are analyzed and compared. Numerical calculation for a moderate size 1.064 mu m lidar shows that an accuracy better than 1 m/s for the velocity measurement and 18% for the backscatter ratio measurement can be obtained up to a height of 10 km by a 500 shot average.