The Doppler Rayleigh lidar system at Arecibo

The instrument structure and the operation of a Doppler Rayleigh lidar located at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico are described. The device consists of an injection seeded, frequency doubled, Nd:YAG laser coupled with a small Newtonian telescope and a single etalon, Fabry-Perot interferometer in its receiver. With this combination of transmitter and receiver, observations of the Doppler spectral components of the Rayleigh backscattered signal from the atmosphere are possible. Neutral wind and temperature up to mesospheric heights are presented. The improvements to the instrument that are underway, which will allow an increase in the temporal and spectral sampling of the winds, are discussed.<
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