An Imaging Bistatic Lidar System for Boundary Layer Monitoring

A simple, inexpensive bistatic lidar system has been designed for low altitude scattering measurements in the range at which monostatic lidar systems typically require Substantial overlap corrections. The new system requires no overlap correction and has the advantage of extremely small dynamic range. The instrument employs a pulsed laser transmitter and wide-angle receiving optics which image the entire beam onto a CCD detector. Thus the scanning typical of many bistatic systems is not required. Altitude is determined from geometrical constraints rather than through timing. The system offers sub-meter altitude resolution near the ground. The system has been tested under molecular scattering conditions. The system has also been tested under aerosol scattering conditions and compared to a nephelometer whose intake stack is at 10 m above ground.