Comparative Analysis of CCD Camera Lidar Signal and Noise in Wildfire and Non-Fire Events for Wider Scattering Applications in Particulate Dense Atmospheric Conditions

This study investigates the performance of a novel CCD Camera Lidar (CLidar) system in

detection of laser light scattering by suspended particulates in the atmosphere in both typical

urban atmospheric conditions and during a heavily polluted atmospheric wildfire event. Signal

and noise effects are quantified to assess instrument capabilities for investigating atmospheric

phenomena under particulate dense atmospheric conditions. The signal to noise ratio is an

important statistic for all instrument detection systems, and noise is a consistent challenge in

lidar measurement of atmospheric aerosols (suspended particulates). This study represents an

important step in demonstrating the capabilities of a rugged and inexpensive bistatic lidar system

for field studies of atmospheric phenomena such as forest fires. Traditional lidar systems

typically employ a monostatic configuration with expensive detection systems that may be

fragile and require housings for temperature stabilization, etc. The CLidar system offers a robust,

field-ready design requiring no housings and employing an inexpensive astronomical CCD

camera as its detector, making it a good candidate for field studies of pollution events such as

wildfires. In this study we assess the instrument signal and noise parameters for CLidar

atmospheric image data taken in an urban setting with the camera detector 50-60 meters from the

laser transmitter on a clear night with data taken during the Canadian Wildfire smoke events of

June 2023. Results show the CLidar can be an effective tool to study both light aerosol loading

and dense particulate scattering events.