Lidar-measured atmospheric N₂ vibrational-rotational Raman spectra and consequent temperature retrieval

We have built a spectrally resolved Raman lidar to measure atmospheric N₂ Stokes vibrational-rotational Raman spectra. The lidar applies a double-grating polychromator with a reciprocal linear dispersion of ~0.12 nm mm(-1) for the wavelength separation and a 32-channel linear-array photomultiplier tube for sampling the spectral signals. The lidar can together measure the individual S- and O-branch line signals from J = 0 (2) through 14 (16). A comparison shows an excellent agreement between the lidar-measured and theoretically-calculated spectra. Based on the signal ratio of two individual lines (e.g., S-branch J = 6 and 12), the atmospheric temperature profiles are derived without requiring a calibration from another reference temperature. In terms of the envelope shape of an even-J section of the measured S-branch lines, we have also developed a new temperature retrieval approach without needing a calibration from reference temperature data. Both the approaches can give rise to reasonable temperature profiles comparable to that from local radiosonde.