We present an improved prototype of a low-cost High Spectral Resolution Lidar developed by our group at the University of Wisconsin. The lidar transmitter is based on commercially available diode laser components: a distributed feedback diode (DFB) laser and two semiconductor optical amplifiers; it operates at 780 nm and uses Rb D2 absorption line for signal discrimination. In this paper we describe an improved instrument design, and present the aerosol backscatter and depolarization ratio measurements of aerosols and clouds performed by the prototype system.
Razenkov et al. (Thu,) studied this question.