Wavelength-locking-free 1.57µm differential absorption lidar for CO₂ sensing

We propose a novel wavelength-locking-free differential absorption lidar system for CO₂ sensing. The ON-line wavelength laser was wavelength modulated around a specific CO₂ absorption line to ensure that the emission from the ON-line laser hit the atmospheric CO₂ absorption line peak twice a cycle. In the meantime, the intensity of the ON-line and OFF-line wavelength lasers were sinusoidally intensity modulated to enhance the SNR of the back-scattered signal. As a consequence, the system configuration was simplified and the measurement error caused by the deviation of CO₂ absorption coefficient from the long-time ON-line wavelength drifting was completely eliminated. Furthermore, a more precise calibration method was developed which could simultaneously calibrate the offset and precision of the lidar detector. This method could be applied to other differential-absorption-based lidar systems. The result showed that a measurement precision of 0.525% for the column concentration was achieved in 1 s time interval through a path of 780m. We recorded the CO₂ concentration variation for 12 hours starting from mid-night, the result showed that the course of the concentration derived from the DIAL was in good agreement with that of the in situ CO₂ sensor only when the status of atmosphere was stable.