UV rotational Raman lidar for temperature measurement of the troposphere

Lidar techniques have been developed to obtain improved measurements of atmospheric temperature. Four methods have been developed for measuring the atmospheric temperature, i.e. the two-wavelength differential absorption lidar (DIAL) technique); the molecular density method; the Rayleigh spectral width method; a pure rotational Raman method. The temperature measurements with the Rayleigh backscatter method are limited above 35 km altitude where the aerosol backscatter is much less than Rayleigh backscatter. Accuracy of better than 1 K were made by the rotational Raman method above 4 km. In the paper, a rotational Raman lidar has been developed for accurate temperature measurement in the troposphere. The developed system uses an UV laser of 355 nm wavelength and anti-Stokes lines of the rotational Raman spectrum. The temperature accuracy is analyzed by considering sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio. The simulation has been made for accurate temperature measurement of the troposphere.