Remote sensing of atmospheric aerosols with the use of a white-light femtosecond laser: numerical simulation

The progress in the technology of generation of high-power femtosecond pulses opens new possibilities for solving urgent problems in atmospheric optics. High energy density and wide spectral range of femtosecond pulses in air increase significantly the information content of laser sensing. The capabilities of spectroscopic methods harnessing the phenomena of light emission and nonlinear and incoherent light scattering also extend. Secondary effects, in particular, the occurrence of a stable supercontinuum of direct white light allows its use as a white-light lidar in remote analysis of optical and microphysical properties of the atmospheric aerosol. Based on the experience of solving inverse problems of laser sensing at the institute of Atmospheric Optics, the refine the methodology of solving this class of problems with the use of promising white-light lidars. As the first necessary stage, the results of numerical experiments on multifrequency aerosol sensing in the visible and near-IR wavelength ranges along vertical sensing path are discussed in the present report. The problem of optimal selection of a wavelength range in solved, the stability of the available reconstruction algorithms under conditions of noise background are investigated for the case wide-aperture signal reception, and the limiting sensing regimes are evaluated.