Instrumentation

The requirements of high spatial and temporal resolution and good signal statistics for middle atmosphere research prescribe Rayleigh lidar systems with high-energy, high repetition lasers, narrow laser beam divergences, narrow laser linewidths, high atmospheric transmittance with strong Rayleigh backscatter properties, large-aperture telescopes with submilliradian field of view, narrow spectral passband, and maximized optical throughput. These factors have been incorporated into the design of the ARCLITE Rayleigh lidar system.

System Layout

System Specifications

Transmitter: Spectra-Physics GCR5-30 Nd:YAG
Wavelength	532 nm
Pulse width	7 ns
Pulse repetition rate	30 Hz
Pulse energy	560 mJ
Average power	17 W
Seeded linewidth	105 MHz
Beam divergence (X4)	0.1 mrad
Receiver: Newtonian Telescope Configuration
Telescope diameter	92 cm
Focal length	203 cm
Field of view	0.5 mrad
Number of channels	2
1/2 l plate / Polarizer Filter bandwidth: Nighttime Daytime	l 10 Å 0.8 Å
Signal Processing: Photon Counting Data Acquisition System
Data system	SR430
Maximum count rate	100 MHz
Range bin size	192 m
Number of range bins	1024
On-line integration	1 min
Computer system	PC 486-33
PMTs (2)	EMI 9863B/100