Atmospheric visibility correlates with photon travel time delay from frequency modulated continuous-wave Doppler wind lidar

ABSTRACT

Atmospheric visibility, or meteorological optical range (MOR), is governed by light extinction by aerosols and is linked to air quality and Earth’s climate. A coherent frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) Doppler wind lidar has been used to measure the atmospheric roundtrip distance (target distance) in the period 24 March 2022 to 29 March 2022. A visibility sensor measured MOR independently. The independently measured MOR was found to correlate with the lidar roundtrip distance with a R² value of 0.68. A first-order model explaining the observation is presented. The results are promising and indicate that more extensive research is worthwhile, in particular, a longer measurement time series covering more diverse atmospheric conditions and a dedicated visibility sensor located next to the lidar.

Acknowledgements

We thank Ian Hughes for technical support with the lidar and related infrastructure and Scott Wylie (ZX Lidars, now Green Rebel) for helpful discussions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, MH and GE, upon reasonable request.