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A practical method for instrumental calibration and aerosol optical properties retrieval based on coherent Doppler lidar (CDL) and sun photometer is presented in this paper. To verify its feasibility and accuracy, this method is applied into three field experiments in 2019 and 2020. In this method, multiwavelength (440, 670, 870, and 1020 nm) aerosol optical depth (AOD) from sun-photometer measurements are used to estimate AOD at 1550 nm and calibrate integrated CDL backscatter signal. Then it is validated by comparing the retrieved calibrated AOD at 1550 nm from CDL signal and that from sun-photometer measurements. Good agreement between them with the correlation of 0.96, the RMSE of 0.0085, and the mean relative error of 22% is found. From the comparison results of these three experiments, sun photometer is verified to be an effective reference instrument for the calibration of CDL return signal and the aerosol optical properties measurement with CDL is feasible. It is expected to promote the study on the aerosol flux and transport mechanism in the planetary boundary layer with the widely deployed CDLs.

The observation and identification of wake vortex are considered important factors to reduce aviation accidents and increase airport capacity. In addition to aircraft parameters, the evolution process of the wake vortex is strongly related to atmospheric conditions, including crosswind, headwind, atmospheric turbulence, and temperature stratification. Crosswind generally affects the wake vortex trajectories by transporting them to the downwind direction. Additionally, the circulation attenuation of wake vortex is also influenced by crosswind shear or turbulence related to crosswind. This paper implemented the range height indicator (RHI) scanning mode of pulsed coherent Doppler lidar (PCDL) to study the influence of crosswind on wake vortex evolution. The crosswind was obtained from the non-wake vortex regions of the RHI sectors. The method, based on the measurements of radial velocity and spectrum with the broadening feature, was performed to locate wake vortex cores. The wake vortex trajectories with various crosswind strengths were comprehensively analyzed.

After the successful launch of Aeolus which is the first spaceborne wind lidar developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) on 22 August 2018, we deployed several ground-based coherent Doppler wind lidars (CDLs) to verify the wind observations from Aeolus. By the simultaneous wind measurements with CDLs at 17 stations over China, the Rayleigh-clear and Mie-cloudy horizontal-line-of-sight (HLOS) wind velocities from Aeolus in the atmospheric boundary layer are compared with that from CDLs. To ensure the quality of the measurement data from CDL and Aeolus, strict quality controls are applied in this study. Overall, 52 simultaneous Mie-cloudy comparison pairs and 387 Rayleigh-clear comparison pairs from this campaign are acquired. All of the Aeolus-produced L2B Mie-cloudy HLOS, Rayleigh-clear HLOS and CDL-produced HLOS are compared individually. For the inter-comparison result of Mie-cloudy HLOS wind and CDL-produced HLOS wind, the correlation coefficient, the standard deviation, the scaled MAD and the bias are 0.83, 3.15 m/s, 2.64 m/s and −0.25 m/s respectively, while the "y = ax" slope, the "y = ax + b" slope and the "y = ax + b" intercept are 0.93, 0.92 and −0.33 m/s. For the Rayleigh-clear HLOS wind, the correlation coefficient, the standard deviation, the scaled MAD and the bias are 0.62, 7.07 m/s, 5.77 m/s and −1.15 m/s respectively, while the "y = ax" slope, the "y = ax + b" slope and the "y = ax + b" intercept are 1.00, 0.96 and −1.2 m/s. It is found that the standard deviation, the scaled MAD and the bias on ascending tracks are slightly better than that on descending tracks. Moreover, to evaluate the accuracy of Aeolus HLOS wind measurements under different product baselines, the Aeolus L2B Mie-cloudy HLOS wind data and L2B Rayleigh-clear HLOS wind data under Baselines 07/08, Baselines 09/10, and Baseline 11 are compared against the CDL-retrieved HLOS wind data separately. From the comparison results, marked misfits between the wind data from Aeolus Baselines 07/08 and wind data from CDL in planetary boundary layer are found. With the continuous calibration and validation and product processor updates, the performances of Aeolus wind measurements under Baselines 09/10 and Baseline 11 are improved significantly. Considering the influence of turbulence and convection in the planetary boundary layers, higher values for the vertical velocity are common in this region. Hence, as a special note, the vertical velocity could impact the HLOS wind velocity retrieval from Aeolus.

The low-level wind shear is defined as a sharply change of the wind speed or wind direction within 600 m above the ground level. Due to affecting the airspeed of aircraft during take-off and landing phases, the wind shear can result in the disastrous aircraft accidents. The lidar team at Ocean University of China (OUC) carried out the particular research of the low-level wind shear at Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) in 2015 and 2016 by operating a pulse coherent Doppler lidar (PCDL) system. In this field experiment, the radial resolution is 30 m while the angle resolution is 0.1° and the updating rate of observation data is 4 Hz. On account of the high spatial and temporal resolution, the small-scale meteorological phenomenon can be captured. The low-level wind shear is observed by different scanning modes including 5-Doppler beam swing (5-DBS), step-wise plane-position indicator (PPI), multi-elevation PPI, range-height indicator (RHI) and glide path scan. The experiment configuration, the PCDL system, the observation modes and the case study of the wind shear are proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The quick-look algorithms which identifies the wind shear alarm based on the radial velocity data have been developed and tested. A case study of the wind shear shows that the events of low-level wind shear at the southern end of 18R/36L are suspected to be caused by buildings and rows of trees along the glide path under strong northwest wind conditions. Meanwhile, more than 2000 PPI scans have been analyzed to indicate the relationship between wind shear intensity and ramp length. Preliminary validations of the algorithms against wind shear reports from the crew and the terminal control office indicated positive skill. Totally, 14 wind shear cases have been validated by reports from the crew during field observation campaign.

Accurate and rapid observation of sea surface wind is important for the research of ocean dynamic prediction model, offshore wind resource assessment, air-sea interaction and flux. A compact floating coherent Doppler lidar system named WindMast 350-M was developed by Ocean University of China (OUC) and Leice Transient Technology Co. LTD (LEICE) for the observations of sea surface wind profiles. As an observation device installed on buoy platforms, the first vehicular motion experiment was conducted at Laoshan campus of Ocean University of China(120.49°E , 36.16°N) on 06 and 12 March, 2019. During the first experiment, the wind profiles measured by the WindMast 350-M were compared with the results from a well calibrated Ground-based Coherent Doppler lidar WindMast WP350. In this contribution, the systematic design and the specifications of 350-M are presented in detail. The preliminary results of the vehicular motion experiment are discussed as well.

Low-level wind shear is usually to be a rapidly changing meteorological phenomenon that cannot be ignored in aviation security service by affecting the air speed of landing and take-off aircrafts. The lidar team in Ocean University of China (OUC) carried out the long term particular researches on the low-level wind shear identification and regional wind shear inducement search at Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) from 2015 to 2020 by operating several pulsed coherent Doppler lidar (PCDL) systems. On account of the improved glide path scanning strategy and virtual multiple wind anemometers based on the rang height indicator (RHI) modes, the small-scale meteorological phenomenon along the glide path and/or runway center line direction can be captured. In this paper, the device configuration, scanning strategies, and results of the observation data are proposed. The algorithms to identify the low-level wind shear based on the reconstructed headwind profiles data have been tested and proved based on the lidar data obtained from December 2018 to January 2019. High spatial resolution observation data at vertical direction are utilized to study the regional wind shear inducement at the 36L end of BCIA under strong northwest wind conditions.

As modern wind power industry quickly develops, it is of high priority to optimize layouts and operations of wind turbines to reduce the influences of wakes induced by upstream wind turbines. The wake behaves complicatedly with land ocean-atmosphere interactions. This complex wake could be observed by two or more synchronously operated Doppler lidars. Accordingly, we characterized a wind turbine wake evolving over an intertidal zone performed with dual-lidar observations. Dynamic process of wakes merging that occurred from approximately 1 D (rotor diameter) downstream was captured and analysed. The phenomenon that wake length increased with rising tide was analysed in details. It suggested that the increase of wake length varied with underlying surface roughness transition from mud to sea water as well as the rising sea level. Finally, wake meandering cases were analyzed in detail. Our research shows that the dual-lidar observation technology is a promising remote sensing tool for characterization of complicated wind turbine wakes.

Ocean University of China lidar team operated a pulse coherent Doppler lidar (PCDL) for the low level wind shear monitoring at the Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) in 2015. The experiment configuration, observation modes is presented. A case study shows that the low level wind shear events at the southern end of 18R/36L runway were mainly caused by the trees and buildings along the glide path under strong northwest wind conditions.

Field observations for the wake vortices by Coherent Doppler Lidar (CDL) have been carried out at the Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) and Tianjin Binhai International Airport (TBIA) to investigate the wake vortices evolution characteristics and the near-ground effect. This paper introduces the dynamic wake vortices and atmospheric turbulence monitoring technique, successfully demonstrating that the CDL can capture the key characteristics of wake vortices in real-time, including wake vortices intensity, spatial-temporal evolution and so forth.

A scanning Coherent Doppler Lidar (CDL) were employed for elucidating main features of turbine wakes under different surface roughness. Field experiments were performed in the onshore and offshore wind parks from 2013 to 2015.

Aircraft vortices are generated by the lift-producing surfaces of the aircraft. The variability of near-surface conditions can change the drop rate and cause the cell of the wake vortex to twist and contort unpredictably. The pulsed Coherent Doppler Lidar Detection and Ranging is an indispensable access to real aircraft vortices behavior which transmitting a laser beam and detecting the radiation backscattered by atmospheric aerosol particles. Experiments for Coherent Doppler Lidar measurement of aircraft wake vortices has been successfully carried out at the Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA). In this paper, the authors discuss the Lidar system, the observation modes carried out in the measurements at BCIA and the characteristics of vortices.

Shipborne wind observations by the Coherent Doppler Lidar (CDL) during the 2014 Yellow Sea campaign are presented to study the structure of the Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer (MABL). This paper gives an analysis of the correction for horizontal and vertical wind measurement, demonstrating that the combination of the CDL with the attitude correction system enables the retrieval of wind profiles in the MABL during both anchored and cruising measurement with satisfied statistical uncertainties.

The Compact High-Power Shipborne Doppler Wind Lidar (CHiPSDWiL) based on highspectral-resolution technique has been built up at the Ocean University of China for the measurement of the wind field and the properties of the aerosol and clouds in the troposphere. The design of the CHiPSDWiL including the transceiver, the injection seeding, the locking and the frequency measurement will be presented. Preliminary results measured by the CHiPSDWiL are provided.

The measurement accuracy of a Doppler lidar and other laser spectra research is very sensitive to the frequency drift of the laser transmitter. Because currently used frequency locking methods usually involve complicated optics and are sensitive to the working conditions, we present a simple and robust locking method—locking the laser to iodine absorption lines with a software-based PID controller. The locking strategy was successfully applied to three kinds of cw single-frequency Nd: YAG lasers with different tuning actuators. The disadvantage of a slow tuning response is eliminated by using a parameter-adjustable PID algorithm. The frequency stability is better than 200 kHz for 3 h which, to our knowledge is one of the best long-period locking result achieved for this kind of laser.

The single longitudinal mode operation and frequency stability are essential for the laser transmitter used in the Doppler lidar. We devise a seed injection, frequency tunable and locked Q-switched Nd:YAG laser for the direct detection Doppler lidar. By implementation of the dual-wavelength seed laser and iodine-based PID frequency-locking technique, the frequency-stabilized seed laser is robust to interference and can be locked within 200 kHz for 3 h. The stable output of single longitudinal mode of the frequency-doubled pulsed laser makes it possible to achieve operational wind measurement.

Turbulent wake of wind turbine reduces the power output of wind farm. The coherent Doppler Lidar is used to visualize the turbulent wake of wind turbine blades to analyze its scale and wind velocity deficit.

The indispensable access to real turbulent wake behavior is provided by the pulsed coherent Doppler Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) which operates by transmitting a laser beam and detecting the radiation backscattered by atmospheric aerosol particles. The Doppler shift in the frequency of the backscattered signal is analyzed to obtain the line-of-sight (LOS) velocity component of the air motion. From the LOS velocities the characteristic of the turbulent wake can be deduced. The Coherent Doppler LIDAR (CDL) is based on all-fiber laser technology and fast digital-signal-processing technology. The 1.5 µm eye-safe Doppler LIDAR system has a pulse length of 200ns and a pulse repetition frequency of 10 kHz. The speed measurement range is ±50m/s and the speed measurement uncertainty is 0.3 m/s. The 2-axis beam scanner and detection range of 3000m enable the system to monitor the whole wind farming filed. Because of the all-fiber structure adoption, the system is stable, reliable and high-integrated. The wake vortices of wind turbine blades with different spatial and temporal scales have been observed by LIDAR. In this paper, the authors discuss the possibility of using LIDAR measurements to characterize the complicated wind field, specifically wind velocity deficit and terrain effects.

A 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, a 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 during daytime could be greatly restricted, especially for the lidar operating at visible wavelengths 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 signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvement. This work describes a lidar prototype operating at the Fraunhofer lines, the invisible band of solar spectrum, to achieve photon counting under intense solar background. The photon counting lidar prototype in Fraunhofer lines devised was used to observe the atmospheric boundary layer. The SNR was improved 2-3 times by operating the lidar at the wavelength in solar dark lines. The aerosol extinctions illustrate the vertical structures of aerosol in the atmospheric boundary over Qingdao suburban during summer 2011.

Pulsed Coherent Doppler Lidar (CDL) system is so good as to prove the feasibility of the marine atmosphere boundary layer detection. A ship-mounted Coherent Doppler lidar was used to measure the wind profile and vertical velocity in the boundary layer over the Yellow sea in 2014. Furthermore, for the purpose of reducing the impact of vibration during movement and correcting the LOS velocity, the paper introduces the attitude correction algorithm and comparison results.

Turbulent wake of wind turbine will reduce the power output of wind farm. The access to real turbulent wake of wind turbine blades with different spatial and temporal scales is provided by the pulsed Coherent Doppler Lidar (CDL) which operates by transmitting a laser beam and detecting the radiation backscattered by atmospheric aerosol particles. In this paper, the authors discuss the possibility of using lidar measurements to characterize the complicated wind field, specifically wind velocity deficit by the turbine wake.

Incoherent Doppler wind lidar measures the wind by detecting the frequency shift of the laser backscattering from aerosol and atmosphere molecules. The wind measurement sensitivity of edge detection technology like iodine vapor filter depends on the aerosol load of probe volume. The current Direct detect wind lidar system has to obtain the measurement sensitivity from the independent measurement or prior atmosphere aerosol data before accurate wind retrieval. Otherwise, the variation of aerosol mixing ratio would introduce great uncertainty in the wind speed measurement, which is unacceptable on airborne and space-borne Doppler lidar. This paper proposes a new method to achieve real-time wind speed calibration by three adjacent frequency laser pulses alternately transmitted. Three laser pulses are frequency locked to the middle and two wings of the iodine filter absorption line. Because the frequency of triple pulses is changing rather fast, it can be approximately regarded as a synchronous measurement of both aerosol mixing ratio and wind speed. By this way, we can not only ensure the wind measure accuracy, but also achieve the reliable wind field measurement on a mobile platform.

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.

Direct Detect Doppler wind lidar retrieves the three dimensional wind by discriminating the frequency shift of the atmosphere elastic backscatter signal. The wind measurement sensitivity of edge detect technology based on iodine absorption lines highly depends on the aerosol backscatter ratio indicating the mixing ratio of aerosol to atmosphere molecule in the measurement volume. This work adopt an extra nitrogen Raman channel in addition to elastic Mie and Rayleigh scattering so as to retrieve the aerosol backscatter coefficient on site and in real time. The Doppler lidar transmitter is a single longitudinal mode laser at 532 nm, and the lidar receiver analyzes elastic-scatter spectrum of central wavelength at 532 nm, nitrogen Raman spectrum of central wavelength at 607 nm. The lidar prototype is validated by experiment. Results show that this method is capable of measuring aerosol backscatter ratio profile of low-altitude troposphere at the same time as wind measurement, which can define the wind measurement sensitivity and improve the accuracy of wind speed retrieval.

A mobile Doppler lidar based on an injection-seeded diode-pumped Nd:YAG pulsed laser with a high repetition rate was developed to measure the sea surface wind (SSW) with high spatial and temporal resolution. The system was operated during the 2007 Qingdao International Regatta to measure the distribution of SSW in the racing area in real time with 50-100 m horizontal resolution and 2-10 min temporal resolution. An observation of nonuniform distribution of SSW is presented. The lidar results are compared with both buoy and wind tower measurements, which show good agreement. This lidar can be used advantageously for the 2008 Olympic sailing games as well as for observing mesoscale and microscale meteorology processes.

An incoherent Doppler wind lidar based on iodine edge filters has been developed at the Ocean University of China for remote measurements of atmospheric wind fields. The lidar is compact enough to fit in a minivan for mobile deployment. With its sophisticated and user-friendly data acquisition and analysis system (DAAS), this lidar has made a variety of line-of-sight (LOS) wind measurements in different operational modes. Through carefully developed data retrieval procedures, various wind products are provided by the lidar, including wind profile, LOS wind velocities in plan position indicator (PPI) and range height indicator (RHI) modes, and sea surface wind. Data are processed and displayed in real time, and continuous wind measurements have been demonstrated for as many as 16 days. Full-azimuth-scanned wind measurements in PPI mode and full-elevation-scanned wind measurements in RHI mode have been achieved with this lidar. The detection range of LOS wind velocity PPI and RHI reaches 8-10 km at night and 6-8 km during daytime with range resolution of 10 m and temporal resolution of 3 min. In this paper, we introduce the DAAS architecture and describe the data retrieval methods for various operation modes. We present the measurement procedures and results of LOS wind velocities in PPI and RHI scans along with wind profiles obtained by Doppler beam swing. The sea surface wind measured for the sailing competition during the 2008 Beijing Olympics is also presented. The precision and accuracy of wind measurements are estimated through analysis of the random errors associated with photon noise and the systematic errors introduced by the assumptions made in data retrieval. The three assumptions of horizontal homogeneity of atmosphere, close-to-zero vertical wind, and uniform sensitivity are made in order to experimentally determine the zero wind ratio and the measurement sensitivity, which are important factors in LOS wind retrieval. Deviations may occur under certain meteorological conditions, leading to bias in these situations. Based on the error analyses and measurement results, we point out the application ranges of this Doppler lidar and propose several paths for future improvement.

The Key Laboratory of Ocean Remote Sensing of the Ministry of Education of China, Ocean University of China, has developed the first mobile Doppler wind lidar in China. As an important component of meteorological services for the Good Luck Beijing 2007 Qingdao International Regatta, the mobile Doppler wind lidar was used to measure the sea surface wind (SSW) with 100 m*100 m spatial and 10-min temporal resolution in Qingdao from 15 to 23 August 2007. We present the results from two aspects of this campaign. First, the lidar was operated in the fixed-direction mode and compared to SSW simultaneously measured by a collocated buoy. Second, we present lidar wind measurements throughout the regatta and show good agreement with the match situation of the International Regatta. In addition, we present a case study, accounting for the observation of sailboats stopped by the headwind. With considerable data accumulated, we have shown that the mobile Doppler wind lidar can indeed provide near real-time SSW in support of the sailing games. The lidar has also provided meteorological services for the 2008 Olympic sailing games from 8 to 22 August and Paralympics Sailing Games from 8 to 13 September 2008 in Qingdao.

Atmospheric line-of-sight (LOS) wind measurement by means of incoherent Cabannes- Mie lidar with three frequency analyzers, two double-edge Fabry-Perot interferometers, one at 1064 nm (IR-FPI) and another at 355 nm (UV-FPI), as well as an iodine vapor filter (IVF) at 532 nm, utilizing either a single absorption edge, single edge (se-IVF), or both absorption edges, double edge (de-IVF), was considered in a companion paper [Appl. Opt. 46, 4434 (2007)], assuming known atmospheric temperature and aerosol mixing ratio, Rb. The effects of temperature and aerosol variations on the uncertainty of LOS wind measurements are investigated and it is found that while the effect of temperature variation is small, the variation in R(b) can cause significant errors in wind measurements with IVF systems. Thus the means to incorporate a credible determination of R(b) into the wind measurement are presented as well as an assessment of the impact on wind measurement uncertainty. Unlike with IVF methods, researchers can take advantage of design flexibility with FPI methods to desensitize either molecular scattering for IR-FPI or aerosol scattering for UV-FPI. The additional wind measurement uncertainty caused by R(b) variation with FPI methods is thus negligible for these configurations. Assuming 100,000 photons from Cabannes scattering, and accounting for the Rb measurement incorporated into the IVF method in this paper, it is found that the lowest wind uncertainty at low wind speeds in aerosol-free air is still with UV-FPI, ~32% lower than with de-IVF. For 0.05R(b)0.07, the LOS wind uncertainty is lowest with de-IVF, and for R(b)0.07, the IR-FPI outperforms all other methods. In addition to LOS wind uncertainty comparison under high wind speed conditions, the need of an appropriate and readily available narrowband filter for operating the wind lidar at visible wavelengths under sunlit condition is discussed; with such a filter the degradation of LOS wind measurement attributable to clear sky background is estimated to be 5% or less for practical lidar systems.