Program of Spaceborne Oceanic Lidar Based on Semianalytic Monte Carlo Method

The ocean covers more than 71 percent of the earth. Studies on the vast ocean are of great significance to resources utilization and climate change. Both active and passive detection technologies have been widely used, while the passive detection provides limited information on the vertical distribution of ocean constituents. Lidar has the capability to provide information about the depth distribution of atmosphere and ocean. Recently, much attention has been focused on the application of lidar techniques to oceanographic research. Airborne and shipborne lidars have been used for decades to study ocean subsurface properties, but they are limited by spatial and temporal resolution. Spaceborne lidar is important for detecting the ocean subsurface. Up to now, there is no spaceborne oceanic lidar in orbit because of the immature technology. Therefore, the simulation of spaceborne oceanic lidar profiles is particularly important. We design a software to simulate the lidar profile from atmosphere and ocean with different optical properties.