Daytime photon counting lidar prototype in the Fraunhofer lines

Songhua Wu

doi:10.1117/12.901057

19 August 2011 Daytime photon counting lidar prototype in the Fraunhofer lines

Songhua Wu

Proceedings Volume 8192, International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging 2011: Laser Sensing and Imaging; and Biological and Medical Applications of Photonics Sensing and Imaging; 819207 (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.901057
Event: International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging 2011, 2011, Beijing, China

Abstract

Lidar detects atmospheric parameters by transmitting laser pulse to the atmosphere and receiving the backscattering signals from molecules and aerosol particles. Because of the small backscattering cross section, lidar usually uses the high sensitive photomultiplier and avalanche photodiode as detector and uses photon counting technology for collection of weak backscatter signals. Photon Counting enables the capturing of extremely weak lidar return from long distance throughout dark background by a long time accumulation. Because of the strong solar background, the signal-to-noise ratio of lidar in the daytime could be greatly restricted, especially for the lidar operating at visible band where solar background is prominent. Narrow band-pass filters must therefore be installed in order to isolate solar background noise at wavelengths close to that of the lidar receiving channel, whereas the background light in superposition with signal spectrum limits an effective margin for SNR improvement. This work propose a high spectral resolution lidar prototype operating at the Fraunhofer lines, the invisible band of solar spectrum, to achieve photon counting under intense solar background. The laser transmitter is an optical parametric oscillator pump by 355 nm Nd:YAG laser and is tuned to the dark line by the Magnesium atom of the solar atmosphere by which nearly 90% of solar radiation is absorbed. The prototype provides some theoretical references for optimized design of photon counting lidar in visible band with the comparable SNR at night, which may contribute to the research on diurnal variation of atmosphere and to the operational observation of lidar.

Citation Download Citation

Songhua Wu "Daytime photon counting lidar prototype in the Fraunhofer lines", Proc. SPIE 8192, International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging 2011: Laser Sensing and Imaging; and Biological and Medical Applications of Photonics Sensing and Imaging, 819207 (19 August 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.901057

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
6 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

LIDAR

Photon counting

Optical parametric oscillators

Signal to noise ratio

Prototyping

Atmospheric particles

Backscatter

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years