Continuous wave synthetic low-coherence wind sensing Lidar: motionless measurement system with subsequent numerical range scanning

A continuous wave (CW) Lidar system for detection of scattering from atmospheric aerosol particles is presented which is useful in particular for remote sensing of wind velocities. It is based on a low-coherence interferometric setup powered by a synthetic broadband laser source with Gaussian power density spectrum. The laser bandwidth is electronically adjustable and determines the spatial resolution which is independent of range. The Lidar system has no moving parts. The location to be resolved can be shifted numerically after the measurement meaning that a single measurement already contains the full range information. The features of constant resolution and numerical range scanning are in sharp contrast to ordinary CW Lidar systems.