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Water is the only atmospheric parameter with three-phase state. An ultraviolet Raman lidar was developed for synchronous measurements for water vapor, liquid water and ice water in Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an, China (34.233°N, 108.911°E). An accurate retrieval method on the basis of interference degree is proposed for synchronous three-phase water mixing ratio profiles. Preliminary measurements are carried out in the Laser Radar Center of Remote Sensing of Atmosphere (LRCRSA). Several representative examples are obtained and validated the performance of Raman system. Combined with atmospheric temperature profiles, the synchronous water vapor, liquid water and ice water profiling are retrieved and revealed the variation characteristics in three-phase water. The effective detection can reach up to a height of 5 km under cloudy weather, and synchronized growth in water vapor and liquid water content was obtained in cloud layers. Continuous observations are also made under haze weather condition, and the temporal and spatial evolution trend of three-phase water in clouds at 2 km altitude are successfully realized.

Fringe-imaging Fabry–Perot interferometer (FIFPI) and fringe-imaging Mach–Zehnder interferometer (FIMZI) used as frequency discriminator for incoherent molecular Doppler lidar were analyzed, respectively. For a pure molecular backscattered signal, performances (wind measurement sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio) of both FIFPI and FIMZI systems were simulated based on the U.S. standard atmospheric model. Comparisons of two systems were made under the same emitting and receiving parameters with certain wind speed dynamic range. Simulated results show that, though relatively lower sensitivity to Doppler shift, the single-channel FIMZI system provides a factor of 1.3 times smaller error in the horizontal wind velocity than that of FIFPI at a range of 20 km. We expect that the FIMZI frequency discriminator would provide an effective technique to improve the measurement accuracy for incoherent molecular Doppler lidar.

In order to perform hyperspectral remote sensing, we present a continuous tunable cavity Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) by using potassium dideuterium phosphate (DKDP) with two ring electrodes. DKDP has the good performances of high transmittance in the ultraviolet band and large aperture of 20 mm (the maximum aperture can be 100 mm). Since the resonant frequency of an FPI can be continuously varied with the refractive index change of DKDP caused by the electro-optic effect, the influence of moving parts on resonant frequency can be eliminated. Digital holographic interferometry based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer is employed to measure the refractive index modulation of DKDP. The parameters of FPI are characterized by using an experimental setup with frequency locking and temperature control technologies. Taking the temperature-measuring high-spectral-resolution lidar based on Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering as an example, a continuous tunable cavity FPI with the full width at half-maximum of 200 MHz and free spectral range of 11.12 GHz is realized. The results are in good agreement with the designed parameters.

In order to investigate the biological aerosols in the atmosphere, we have designed an ultraviolet laser induced fluorescence lidar based on the lidar measuring principle. The fluorescence lidar employs a Nd:YAG laser of 266 nm as an excited transmitter, and examines the intensity of the received light at 400 nm for biological aerosol concentration measurements. In this work, we firstly describe the designed configuration and the simulation to estimate the measure range and the system resolution of biological aerosol concentration under certain background radiation. With a relative error of less than 10%, numerical simulations show the system is able to monitor biological aerosols within detected distances of 1.8 km and of 7.3 km in the daytime and nighttime, respectively. Simulated results demonstrate the designed fluorescence lidar is capable to identify a minimum concentration of biological aerosols at 5.0×10-5 ppb in the daytime and 1.0×10-7 ppb in the nighttime at the range of 0.1 km. We believe the ultraviolet laser induced fluorescence lidar can be spread in the field of remote sensing of biological aerosols in the atmosphere.

A laser-induced fluorescence lidar has been developed for detecting the concentration of fluorescent aerosols in the air. The fluorescence lidar was constructed with a pulsed fourth-harmonic Nd:YAG laser at the ultraviolet wavelength of 266 nm with a repetition rate of 10 Hz. A 250 mm diameter custom telescope was used to collect optical spectra ranging from 260 to 560 nm. Fluorescence signals with wavelengths ranging from 310–440 nm were extracted, exploring a filter with a bandwidth of 130 nm. The preliminary experiments were conducted at the campus of Xi’an University of Technology, in which the fluorescence signals of atmospheric fluorescent aerosols were continuously collected from 20:00 to 23:00 CST on 13 December 2017. Based on the fluorescence lidar equation, the density of fluorescence signals was calibrated using Rayleigh–Mie scattering signals and ozone (O3) concentration data at the ground level. Measured ranges show a strong dependence with the O3 concentrations due to its absorption characteristics at ultraviolet 266 nm. Moreover, the concentration of the biogenic particles was also calculated based on the raw data of the fluorescence channel. Obtained results show that the concentration of biogenic particles in the Xi’an area varied greatly, ranging from 3456 particles · m−3 to 8835 particles · m−3 during winter.

Biological aerosols which could cause diseases of human beings, animals and plants, are living particles suspended in the atmosphere. Ultraviolet laser induced fluorescence has been developed as a standard technique used to discriminate between biological and non-biological particles. As an effective tool of remote sensing, fluorescence lidar is capable of detecting concentration of biological aerosols with high spatial and temporal resolutions. Intrinsic fluorescence, one of the most important characteristics of biological aerosols, has quite a large effect on the performances of fluorescence lidar. To investigate the effects of intrinsic fluorescence on biological aerosols, we design an ultraviolet laser induced fluorescence lidar at an excited wavelength of 266 nm, with a repetition rate of 10 Hz. Fluorescence signals are collected by a Cassegrain telescope with a diameter of 254 mm, in which fluorescence spectra of 300-800 nm are mainly considered. A spectrograph and a multichannel photomultiplier tube (PMT) array detector are employed to achieve the fine separation and highefficiency detection of fluorescence signals. According to the present configuration, we perform a series of simulations to estimate the measurement range and the concentration resolution of biological aerosols, with a certain pulse energy. With a relative error less than 10%, theoretical analysis shows that designed fluorescence lidar is able to detect the biological aerosols within a range of 1.5 km at a concentration of 1000 particles·L-1. When the detection distance enlarges to 2.1 km, detectable wavelength range is limited to 300-310 nm. In addition, the lidar is capable of identifying minimum concentrations of biological aerosols with 2 particles·L-1 and 4 particles·L-1 at fluorescence wavelengths of 350 nm and 600 nm, respectively, where the induced pulse energy is set to be 60 mJ and detected range 0.1 km. With setting energies of 40 mJ and 20 mJ, minimum concentrations of biological aerosols decrease to 3 particles·L-1 and 6 particles·L-1, respectively, at a fluorescence wavelength of 350 nm. The relative error of minimum concentration resolution is about 2 particles·L-1, increasing rapidly with range. For a fluorescence wavelength of 600 nm, both the minimum concentration and the relative error show relatively high values, 5 particles·L-1 at 40 mJ and 10 particles·L-1 at 20 mJ, where the relative errors are found to be 2 particles·L-1 and 4 particles·L-1, respectively. The results prove that a shorter intrinsic fluorescence wavelength has a better effect on biological aerosol measurement. We believe that a proper intrinsic fluorescence wavelength will further improve the detection accuracy of biological aerosols.