NCAR's New Raman-shifted Eye-safe Aerosol Lidar (REAL)

NCAR recently completed the development of a new aerosol backscatter lidar system. The system (called "REAL" for Raman-shifted Eye-safe Aerosol Lidar) is novel in that it operates at 1.5 microns wavelength. Operation at this wavelength enables the system to transmit high-energy laser pulses while remaining completely eye-safe at all ranges. REAL has a useful range from about 500 m to over 10 km with approximately 3 m range resolution. The system features a rooftop beam steering unit in order to obtain spatial scans. REAL currently operates at 10 laser pulses per second and we hope to increase this rate in the near future. We hope REAL will be requested and used by boundary layer researchers whose field experiments would benefit from mapping aerosol distributions in regions where eye-safety is imperative.