Bi-Pulse Fiber Laser Source Concept for Integrated-Path Differential Absorption Lidar from Space

CO
2
monitoring over an atmospheric column provides crucial information for climate change monitoring. A possible implementation for this measurement is IPDA (Integrated-Path-Differential-Absorption) lidar on a satellite that measures the absorption difference between two close wavelengths
$(\lambda_{\mathrm{O}\mathrm{N}}$
, absorbed by CO
2
and
$\lambda_{\text{OFF}}$
, not absorbed). Distance to ground must be simultaneously measured. Pulses must be short enough for telemetry (<100ns), narrow-linewidth for spectrally resolved absorption measurement (<100MHz) and high-energy for signal-to-noise ratio (mJ-level).