ULTRAVIOLET LIDAR FOR REMOTE SENSING

REAL-TIME DETECTION OF ATMOSPHERIC COMPOUNDS RELATED TO ACIDRAIN CAN PROBABLY BE PERFORMED BY MEANS OF LIGHT DETECTION AND RANGING (LIDAR) USING CALIBRATED ULTRAVIOLET (UV) LASER-INDUCED FLUORESCENCE (LIF) SIGNATURES. SUCH A SYSTEM WOULD BE USEFUL FOR STAND-OFF DETECTION AND RANGE PROFILING OF DISPERSED SPECIES SUCH AS NOX, SOX, AND OZONE. REALIZATION OF FAST, PORTABLE UV LIDAR EQUIPMENT HAS BEEN HINDERED BY THE LACK OF FAST SIGNAL AVERAGERS, AND EFFICIENT, LIGHT WEIGHT UV LASERS. IN PHASE I LIF DATA WILLBE OBTAINED EXPERIMENTALLY, AND SYSTEM HARDWARE REQUIREMENTSAND DETECTION CONFIDENCE LIMITS WILL BE DETERMINED BY ANALYZING SYNTHETIC LIDAR RETURNS. EMPHASIS WILL BE PLACED ON UV WAVELENGTHS ACCESSIBLE USING COMPACT AND EFFICIENT SOLID STATE LASERS, E.G., ND:YAG, TI:SAPPHIRE, AND ALEXANDRITE. IN PHASE II A PROTOTYPE UV LIDAR SYSTEM WILL BE CONSTRUCTED FOR FIELD TESTS USING PROPRIETARY SIGNAL PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY AND OPTICAL COMPONENTS SPECIFIED IN PHASE I.