Лазерный измеритель характеристик атмосферных неоднородностей в УФ спектральном диапазоне

Development of laser systems designed to operate in conditions of the terrestrial atmosphere demands reliable information about the atmosphere condition. The aerosol lidars for operational monitoring of the atmosphere allow us to define remotely characteristics of atmospheric aerosol and cloudy formations in the atmosphere. Today the majority of aerosol lidars run in the visible range. However, in terms of safety (first of all to eyes) also ultra-violet (UF) range is of interest. A range of the wavelengths of the harmful effect on the eye retina is from 0.38 to 1.4 mμ. Laser radiation with the wavelengths less than 0.38 mμ and over 1.4 mμ influences the anterior ambient of an eye and is safer, than laser radiation with the wavelengths of 0.38 – 1.4 mμ. The paper describes a laser meter to measure characteristics of atmospheric inhomogeneity propertis in UF spectral range at the wavelength of 0.355 mμ. As a radiation source, the meter uses a semiconductor-pumped pulse solid-state Nd:YAG laser. As a receiving lens, Kassegren's scheme-implemented mirror lens with a socket to connect optical fibre is used in the laser meter. Radiation from the receiving lens is transported through the optical fibre to the optical block. The optical block provides spectral selection of useful signal and conversion of optical radiation into electric signal. To ensure a possibility for alignment of the optical axes of receiving lens and laser radiator the lens is set on the alignment platform that enables changing lens inclination and turn with respect to the laser. The software of the laser meter model is developed in the NI LabVIEW 2012 graphic programming environment. The paper gives the following examples: a typical laser echo signal, which is back scattered by the atmosphere and spatiotemporal distribution of variation coefficient of the volumetric factor of the back scattered atmosphere. Results of multi-day measurements show that an extent of the recorded aerosol inhomogeneity properties has an average size of ~ 5 m, and a coefficient of variation can reach values of ~ 8 %.