A three-beam aerosol backscatter correlation lidar for wind profiling.

Area of Science:

• Atmospheric Science
• Optical Remote Sensing
• Laser Technology

Background:

• Accurate wind measurement is crucial for atmospheric studies, aviation safety (wake vortex tracking), and environmental monitoring (plume dispersion).
• Traditional methods may have limitations in spatial coverage or temporal resolution for dynamic atmospheric phenomena.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and present a novel three-beam aerosol backscatter correlation (ABC) lidar system.
• To demonstrate its capability in measuring three components of wind velocity for wake vortex and plume tracking.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a direct detection elastic lidar with three 1030 nm laser transceivers operating at ~10 kHz pulse repetition frequency.
• Employed optical flow algorithms and cross-correlation of aerosol density fluctuations to track aerosol motion between near-parallel laser beams.
• Integrated three 8-inch transceiver modules on a pan-tilt scanner for measurements up to 2 km.

Main Results:

• Successfully obtained three-component wind speed profiles by tracking aerosol structure motion.
• Generated 3D aerosol density maps within short time spans using range-resolved backscatter data.
• Validated the ABC lidar prototype performance against sonic anemometer measurements.

Conclusions:

• The developed ABC lidar system is effective for measuring wind characteristics.
• The system shows promise for applications requiring detailed tracking of atmospheric phenomena like wake vortices and plumes.
• Further validation and application studies are warranted.