Lidar Techniques And Remote Sensing In The Atmosphere

This book provides laser and lidar professionals and students with some basics learning tools in the field of lidar, laser instrumentation, and data analysis. It benefits also ordinary readers who are interesting in remote sensing with laser. The reader will first get an idea about the history of laser and introductory knowledge on the electromagnetic theory. Then the book familiarizes with basic important definitions of terms such as stimulated emission of radiation, population inversion, spontaneous emission, absorption, laser, lidar, maser, radar, water vapor mixing ratio, water vapor density, etc.... . Some basic equations used in lidar and some lidar techniques are also introduced. Water vapor is one of the most important atmospheric variables that play a key role in air quality, global warming, and climate change. Despite its abundance in the atmosphere, and its importance for the climate system, many questions regarding water vapor are presently unresolved. Raman Lidar system has an extraordinary ability to sense accurately water's high temporal and spatial structure in the atmosphere. This book is a review of the electromagnetic theory. It is finally an introduction to lidar techniques for the measurement of Nitrogen, oxygen, and water vapor in the atmosphere.