Lidar investigations of the stratospheric aerosol layer

Abstract

The stratosphere has been probed using the LIDAR (fight detection and ranging) technique for the purpose of detecting the stratospheric aerosol layer, and determining typical aerosol parameters. Analysis of this data has required writing several FORTRAN programs to manipulate the raw data and invert the signal return to obtain the aerosol backscattering coefficient. Additionally, the signal depolarization has been recorded for all of the nights that measurements were made. A theoretical treatment of the two main scattering processes will be given. The development of the LIDAR equation and the method of inversion are presented, as well as a detailed error analysis of the results. The nature and origin of the stratospheric aerosol layer, as well as its effects on the global climate, will also be presented