NOAA ESRL Physical Sciences Division  
OBSERVING SYSTEMS
ABAEL
Optical Remote Sensing Division
ITCT 2K2
Contact
Richard Marchbanks
ABAEL lidar system.
ABAEL lidar system.

Airborne Aerosol Lidar (ABAEL)


ABAEL is designed to detect aerosol layers in the atmosphere from an aircraft. It is deployed for air quality missions to locate aerosol layers for in-situ sampling and for mapping the regional distribution of aerosols.

Specs

Wavelength 355 nm, 15 mJ/pulse
Rep rate 20 Hz
2 Channel System
Near Channel 2" diameter 3 mRad field-of-view bi-axial configuration, designed to see from 120 m to 1 km
Far Channel 10" diameter 1 mRad field of-of-view co-axial configuration, designed to see from 600 m to 8 km
Detectors PMTs with 1 nm FWHM filters at 355 nm

  • Data system is based on a dual channel 12 bit GAGE digitizer with 30 Msample/sec rate.
  • Software to blend near field data with far field data has been developed, creating a seamless display of aerosol backscatter from 120 m to 8 km.
  • The lidar is designed to upgrade to 1.5 microns eventually using the same optics.
  • Operating mode in the P-3 aircraft during ITCT 2k2 is upward looking or downward looking using a 2 position turning mirror on a fairing attached to the side of the aircraft behind the wing.

NOAA
Earth System Research Laboratory
Physical Science Division (PSD)
Formerly
Environmental Technology Laboratory

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Boulder, Colorado 80305-3328
www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd

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