Testing of a Two-Micron Double-Pulse IPDA Lidar Instrument for Airborne Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Measurement

Abstract:

Utilizing a tunable two-micron double-pulse laser transmitter, an airborne IPDA lidar system has been developed at NASA Langley Research Center for atmospheric carbon dioxide column measurements. The instrument comprises a receiver with 0.4 m telescope and InGaAs pin detectors coupled to 12-bit, 200 MS/s waveform digitizers. For on-site ground testing, the 2-μm CO₂ IPDA lidar was installed inside a trailer located where meteorological data and CO₂ mixing ratio profiles were obtained from CAPABLE and LiCoR in-suite sampling, respectively. IPDA horizontal ground testing with 860 m target distance indicated CO₂ sensitivity of 2.24 ppm with -0.43 ppm offset, while operating at 3 GHz on-line position from the R30 line center. Then, the IPDA lidar was integrated inside the NASA B-200 aircraft, with supporting instrumentation, for airborne testing and validation. Supporting instruments included in-situ LiCoR sensor, GPS and video recorder for target identification. Besides, aircraft built-in sensors provided altitude, pressure, temperature and relative humidity sampling during flights. The 2-mm CO₂ IPDA lidar airborne testing was conducted through ten daytime flights (27 hours flight time). Airborne testing included different operating and environmental conditions for flight altitude up to 7 km, different ground target conditions such as vegetation, soil, ocean, snow and sand and different cloud conditions. Some flights targeted power plant incinerators for investigating IPDA sensitivity to CO₂ plums. Relying on independent CO₂ in-situ sampling, conducted through NOAA, airborne IPDA CO₂ sensitivity of 4.15 ppm with 1.14 ppm offset were observed at 6 km altitude and 4 GHz on-line offset frequency. This validates the 2-μm double-pulse IPDA lidar for atmospheric CO₂ measurement.