Frequency Spectrum of Laser Echoes from Atmospheric Constituents and Determination of the Aerosol Content of Air

Abstract

Spectral analysis of the echoes obtained from atmospheric constituents in optical radar experiments yields information related to wind motion, temperature and composition. In particular, air with suspended aerosols is considered, and preliminary experiments are described showing that apparatus of limited resolution yields the ratio of the aerosol-to-molecular component. In the experiments, radiation from a cw He-Ne laser was scattered by air with a variable aerosol content. Spectral analysis of the scattered light was performed with a pressure-scanned Fabry-Perot interferometer.