Optical parametric oscillator based lidar system applied to atomic mercury monitoring

Field measurements of mercury emissions has been performed by using a mobile lidar system. In this system an Nd:YAG-pumped OPO (Optical Parametric Oscillator) laser system is employed to generate a narrow band (better than 0.2 cm/sup -1/) UV beam at the mercury resonance absorption line at 253.65 nm. An inter-comparison of the lidar system and two different point monitoring systems has been performed showing excellent agreement between the instruments.