Virtual Doppler Lidar Instrument

Abstract

Doppler lidars measure the range-resolved line-of-sight wind component by extracting the Doppler shift of radiation backscattered from atmospheric aerosols and molecules. A virtual instrument was developed to simulate wind measurements by flying virtually over the atmosphere. The atmosphere contains all components that influence the lidar, that is, wind, turbulence, aerosols, clouds, etc. For a selected time period, a dataset of the atmospheric conditions from the global model and the local model was provided by the German Weather Service. Three different Doppler lidar systems were simulated for this report: a coherent airborne conical scanning 10-?m Doppler lidar, a 10-?m and a 2-?m spaceborne system, and a spaceborne incoherent ultraviolet Doppler lidar.