Aircraft and Space Atmospheric Measurements Using Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL)

The study of the atmosphere has expanded greatly in the past decade due to concern about global climate change and air quality health effects. The natural atmospheric chemistry is complex but with anthropogenic emissions released into the atmosphere, the resulting complexity makes modeling very difficult. Chemical reactions generally increase with temperature and thus a warming climate may change the weather and climate in unpredictable ways. Also with increased regulations regarding air quality emissions, more attention is being directed toward atmospheric species measurements to assess the impact of specific emission regulations. As a result of these concerns, lidar has become a very valuable tool to directly measure the number density of specific atmospheric species as a function of altitude. This article will review the use of differential absorption lidar (DIAL) in current aircraft based missions and the potential for use of DIAL in orbiting spacecraft