Measurement of integrated speckle statistics for CO_2 lidar returns from a moving, nonuniform, hard target

A pulsed, dual CO(2) laser lidar was used to measure return signal statistics as a function of the number of speckles integrated by the lidar receiver per laser pulse. A rotating target generated statistically independent speckle patterns on each laser pulse. Data were collected for a wide range of receiver aperture sizes. A statistical model is developed that predicts the probability density of the return lidar pulse energy, which includes speckle, depolarization by the target, and albedo sampling. The predictions of this model are compared with the measured probability density function of the return pulse energies. Very good agreement is found between the geometrically calculated number of integrated speckles and the number predicted by the model.