Fluctuation and Change in Measured Backscatter from Atmospheric Aerosols

Abstract

Signal fluctuations from coherent lidar systems have been considered both theoretically and experimentally by many authors in different wavelength regimes. At 10.6µm Hardesty et al [1] considered characteristics of coherent lidar returns from calibration targets and aerosols; Flamant et al [2] used a pulsed CO2 lidar to study speckle effects from various rough surfaces and Letalick et al [3] measured signal amplitude distributions for a FM-cw CO2 laser radar. In other studies Vaughan et al [4] employed correlation analysis to study signal fluctuations from a moving belt.