Power budget and performance assessment for the RSLAB multispectral elastic/raman lidar system

Abstract

The need of a multi-spectral lidar has widely been experienced in last few years with a view to invert the optical and microphysical properties of aerosols and their impact on the climate change. As a part of the EARLINET-GALION objectives, a joint effort has already been made by the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET). The EARLINET advanced standard of 3+2-channel configuration for lidar instruments (3+2 standing for 3 elastic channels and 2 respective Raman channels) enables retrieval of aerosol microphysical properties. An overview of the new RSLAB 3+2+1 multispectral lidar system, therefore, is presented in terms of power budget estimation for all the reception channels and overall system performance, that is, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and maximum sounding range achieved.