Open AccessA Minimum Variance Method for Lidar Signal Inversion
Author(s) -
Andreja Sušnik,
H. Holder,
W. E. Eichinger
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of atmospheric and oceanic technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.774
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1520-0426
pISSN - 0739-0572
DOI - 10.1175/jtech-d-13-00125.1
Subject(s) - inversion (geology) , lidar , plume , inverse transform sampling , environmental science , molar absorptivity , range (aeronautics) , variance (accounting) , remote sensing , meteorology , geology , atmospheric sciences , physics , aerosol , optics , materials science , paleontology , composite material , accounting , structural basin , business
A method for the inversion of elastic lidar data is proposed that determines the value of the extinction coefficient to be used as a boundary condition, by minimizing the variance of the extinction coefficients in a delimited region. The method works well for single-component atmospheres, where the delimited region contains aerosols from a single distribution of concentrations. For situations where there may be two or more distributions (e.g., a smoke plume in the ambient atmosphere), the spatial regions containing each distribution must be identified and treated separately. Examples of inversions are given, including an example of a range–time scan showing the amount of shot-to-shot consistency that may be obtained from the method.