A Technique for Measuring Winds in the Lower Atmosphere Using Incoherent Doppler Lidar

Wind speed is useful from a meteorological standpoint, in atmospheric modeling, and assessment of trace gas dispersal. A continuing effort is involved in improving the sensitivity of such measurements, and is exemplified by the literature.[1-10] The Mobile Atmospheric Research Laboratory (MARL) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is currently developing a method to improve the sensitivity of wind sounding in the lower through middle atmosphere using a pair of Fabry-Perot interferometers in parallel. This technique, first described by Chanin, et al.[4], for the middle atmosphere using Doppler Rayleigh lidar, can be applied to the lower atmosphere where Mie (aerosol) backscatter is strong. Elastic events, inherent in both Rayleigh and Mie backscatter, dominate the return signal throughout the atmosphere. Both are susceptible to local wind vectors; which will Doppler shift the laser frequency proportional to the wind velocity. A pair of Fabry-Perot interferometers, tuned to either side of the laser frequency, will provide necessary data to determine the shift in frequency of the backscattered signal. Spectral drift and jitter of the laser and a lack of data points to determine the wind vector place limits on the sensitivity of the system. A method to minimize each of these will be presented.