New generation lidars to support aerosol radiation/climate forcing studies

Two economic, eye-safe lidars, feasible for widespread application, are considered for the purpose of obtaining information on atmospheric aerosols critically needed to assess their radiation/climate forcing impact. One is a compact horizontal sensing airborne lidar, and the other is a ground-based slant path sensing lidar. The proposed systems incorporate recent advances in laser and detector technology which permit realization of economic, eye-safe lidars that can achieve high signal-to-noise ratios in fairly short averaging periods. The paper addresses the requirements, features and aerosol measurement capabilities of these two lidars