Testing of a Two-Micron Double-Pulse IPDA Lidar Instrument for Airborne Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Measurement

Utilizing a tunable two-micron double-pulse laser transmitter, an airborne IPDA lidar system has been developed at NASA Langley Research Center for atmospheric carbon dioxide column measurements. The instrument comprises a receiver with 0.4 m telescope and InGaAs pin detectors coupled to 12-bit, 200 MS/s waveform digitizers. For on-site ground testing, the 2-μm CO2 IPDA lidar was installed inside a trailer located where meteorological data and CO2 mixing ratio profiles were obtained from CAPABLE and LiCoR in-suite sampling, respectively. IPDA horizontal ground testing with 860 m target distance indicated CO2 sensitivity of 2.24 ppm with -0.43 ppm offset, while operating at 3 GHz on-line position from the R30 line center. Then, the IPDA lidar was integrated inside the NASA B-200 aircraft, with supporting instrumentation, for airborne testing and validation. Supporting instruments included in-situ LiCoR sensor, GPS and video recorder for target identification. Besides, aircraft built-in sensors provided altitude, pressure, temperature and relative humidity sampling during flights. The 2-mm CO2 IPDA lidar airborne testing was conducted through ten daytime flights (27 hours flight time). Airborne testing included different operating and environmental conditions for flight altitude up to 7 km, different ground target conditions such as vegetation, soil, ocean, snow and sand and different cloud conditions. Some flights targeted power plant incinerators for investigating IPDA sensitivity to CO2 plums. Relying on independent CO2 in-situ sampling, conducted through NOAA, airborne IPDA CO2 sensitivity of 4.15 ppm with 1.14 ppm offset were observed at 6 km altitude and 4 GHz on-line offset frequency. This validates the 2-μm double-pulse IPDA lidar for atmospheric CO2 measurement.