Monte Carlo simulations of laser-generated sea surface aureole

Monte Carlo simulations are used to study the signals generated by the scatter from aerosol in the marine boundary layer and reflection off a rough sea surface when a laser pulse at 1.06microm passes down through the atmosphere. The model estimates the probability of photons being returned to a receiver collocated with the laser which has two detectors: one with a narrow field of view (lidar detector) and another with a wide field of view where the directly reflected photons are blocked (aureole detector). The simulations are done for nine different aerosol size distributions, three different boundary layer depths, and three different wave conditions. A comparison of the boundary layer optical depth and normalized aureole signal is presented. In addition, a comparison is made between the normalized aureole signal at 1.06 microm (when the detector field of view is reduced) and boundary layer optical depths at 3.75 microm.