Discriminants in a backscatter lidar

The discriminants in a backscatter lidar operated from space like different wavelengths, Raman scattering, polarization, multiple scattering or scanning are reduced to polarization, scanning and multiple scattering caused by the limited space and power available in space. Polarization and scanning influences the information content of backscattering from non- spherical particles. A solution for the arising problems cannot be proposed. Multiple scattering is the only discriminant which can be applied from space.