Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

In summary it can be stated that visibility lidar is an accepted technology wherever impaired vision must be detected to impose speed limits to road or takeoff and landing restrictions to air traffic. Visibility lidars known as ceilometers have reached a degree of maturity to work 24 hours a day in the required fully-automated, hands-off operation mode. The development of much smaller systems for use under restricted space conditions and of systems small and cheap enough to be used as a truck and car accessory is in progress, with good chances to reach full commercial availability soon.

The application of differential absorption lidar to narrow lines of the rotational-vibrational spectrum of water vapor or oxygen for humidity and temperature profiling is technically demanding with respect to the laser source and the data acquisition. Many details need to be considered carefully in system design and data evaluation. If that is done properly the technique is very powerful, in particular for water-vapor profiling. The main strengths of DIAL in ground-based applications are its excellent daytime performance for high-resolution studies in the boundary layer and high-accuracy routine observations in the lower half of the troposphere, as well as its independence from external calibrations. Suitability for airborne and probably also for spaceborne applications is definitely another very important feature of the method.