Estimation of various atmospheric constituent measurements by using solid state tunable lasers

Detectivities of differential absorption lidar (DIAL) using solid state lasers have been evaluated. Harmonic-generation and mixing of a Ti:Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ laser and a Nd:YAG laser was considered as a light source, because of its wide-range wavelength tunability from ultraviolet to infrared. Twelve gases were selected for the evaluations because of their importance for the global environment, atmospheric pollution, and industrial gas leakage. As a result, detection limits of H/sub 2/O, CH/sub 4/, and NO/sub 2/ were 4.2 km, 4.1 km, and 1.8 km for average atmospheric concentrations, assuming that S/N=10 is the limit.<>