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Eye-Safe Aerosol and Cloud Lidar Based on Free-Space Intracavity Upconversion Detection

Authors :
Wenjie Yue
Tao Chen
Wei Kong
Xin Chen
Genghua Huang
Rong Shu
Source :
Remote Sensing, Vol 14, Iss 12, p 2934 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2022.

Abstract

We report an eye-safe aerosol and cloud lidar with an Erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) and a free-space intracavity upconversion detector as the transmitter and receiver, respectively. The EDFL was home-made, which could produce linearly-polarized pulses at a repetition rate of 15 kHz with pulse energies of ~70 μJ and pulse durations of ~7 ns centered at 1550 nm. The echo photons were upconverted to ~631 nm via the sum frequency generation process in a bow-tie cavity, where a Nd:YVO4 and a PPLN crystal served as the pump and nonlinear frequency conversion devices, respectively. The upconverted visible photons were recorded by a photomultiplier tube and their timestamps were registered by a customized time-to-digital converter for distance-resolved measurement. Reflected signals peaked at ~6.8 km from a hard target were measured with a distance resolution of 0.6 m for an integral duration of 10 s. Atmospheric backscattered signals, with a range of ~6 km, were also detectable for longer integral durations. The evolution of aerosols and clouds were recorded by this lidar in a preliminary experiment with a continuous measuring time of over 18 h. Clear boundary and fine structures of clouds were identified with a spatial resolution of 9.6 m during the measurement, showing its great potential for practical aerosol and cloud monitoring.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20724292
Volume :
14
Issue :
12
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Remote Sensing
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.3ed055f241b24a2aa7c5595fb9067238
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14122934