Atmospheric study using Micro Pulse Lidar: A Critical Analysis of Laser Radar Measurements

Micro Pulse Lidar (MPL) is used in environmental research to produce vertical contour maps of atmospheric scattering. An MPL system detects backscatter from an expanded laser beam transmitted coaxially with the detector, and uses this information to form a quantitative measure of aerosols present at various altitudes. Many factors must be considered in the complex optical system before raw data can be resolved to reliable figures.