Laser Elektronika-01 for air pollution control lidar

A station for high-altitude sounding of the atmosphere began monitoring the purity of the air over Tomsk yesterday. Data on the distribution of industrial emissions in the atmosphere are obtained with the aid of a multipurpose laser locator, or lidar, which is equipped with a large receiving mirror. Subsequent processing of the data makes it possible to determine sources of pollution. Specialists of the Institute of Atmospheric Optics of the USSR Academy of Sciences' Siberian Branch taught the laser its new occupation. The laser beam proved to be capable of obtaining information on the condition of every layer of air, including the stratosphere. A special computer-based unit of the station makes it possible to read this information in a matter of seconds. No measuring method had such accuracy and operational efficiency in the prelidar era. Within the framework of a Soviet-Bulgarian research program, industry of the People's Republic of Bulgaria has begun the series production of a laser complex, the Elektronika-01, which is based on the Tomsk lidar.