Comparison of blue and green lasers in SALMON simulations of stratified media

Lidar backscatter from seawater with linear vertical gradients in phytoplankton concentration is investigated using the semianalytical Monte Carlo (SALMON) approach. It is found that the Raman normalized fluorescence signal R increases with increasing gradients and surface concentrations of phytoplankton, a source of chlorophyll. The resolution of the signals improves as the surface concentrations become smaller and gradients become higher. For the laser excitation wavelengths used (480 and 532 nm), a power law fit of the results is superior to a straight line fit. The power law fit is more satisfactory and the relative error in R is smaller in the case of the green laser than in the case of the blue laser.