A Raman lidar was developed to observe vertical profiles of water vapor, temperature and aerosols. The lidar system can detect signal from 5 detectors simultaneously. Two vibrational Raman backscattering echoes from H2O and N2 (or 02) excited by Nd:YAG 3rd harmonics wavelength (355 nm) are used to observe the profiles of water vapor mixing ratio and atmospheric temperature (or density). Nd:YAG fundamental and 2nd harmonics wavelengths (1064 and 532 ran) are used to observe backscattering coefficient profiles of aerosols and clouds at these wavelengths. The scattering at 532 nm is observed in parallel and perpendicular components corresponding to the linear polarization plane of the transmitted linearly-polarized laser pulse to observe depolarization ratio profiles. Observed water vapor and temperature distributions coincide with the simultaneously observedradiosonde sounding dataexcellently. The Raman lidar makes it possible to observe the vertical profiles of water vapor, temperature, aerosols, and clouds simultaneously.

A new inversion algorithm for solving lidar equations by signals at five wavelengths from a Raman lidar was developed. Water vapor mixing ratio, temperature, aerosol scattering ratio and depolarization ratio were retrieved using the lidar data and the algorithm. The obtained profiles show good agreement with radiosonde-observed water vapor and temperature profiles. Backscattering profiles of aerosols up to about 30 km were used to estimate extinction with the optical model of aerosols. The extinction term by Mie and Rayleigh scattering at Raman sifted signals was compensated by these estimated values of aerosol extinction. Atmospheric temperature profile in the free troposphere was calculated by Mie and Rayleigh scattering corrected vibrational Raman scattering of 02 or N2. Observed water vapor and temperature profiles were used to evaluate relative humidity. The algorithm demonstrates the usefulness of vibrational Raman scattering in the lidar observations of the atmosphere.