Lidar Observation of Cloud

Lidar (from "light detection and ranging") is the optical counterpart of meteorological radar. At optical wavelengths, very much smaller atmospheric particles can be detected than at microwave wavelengths. With a laser power source, a transmitter uses a lens system to beam very intense pulses of monochromatic light of extremely short duration. Light backscattered by the atmosphere is collected in a receiver system that is essentially a telescope coaligned with the transmitter, and a narrow-pass filter allows only light of the transmitted frequency to be detected by a photomultiplier. Data are presented on an oscilloscope as a trace of signal intensity versus range (the A-scope of radar practice) and photographed.