Compensational three-wavelength differential-absorption lidar technique for reducing the influence of differential scattering on ozone-concentration measurements.

A three-wavelength differential-absorption lidar (DIAL) technique for the ultraviolet spectral region is presented that reduces the influence of aerosol differential scattering on measured ozone-concentration profiles. The principal advantage of this approach is that, to a good first approximation, no correction for aerosol differential-extinction and backscattering effects are needed. Therefore, one avoids having to obtain an aerosol extinction-coefficient profile at a reference wavelength; nor does one have to invoke questionable assumptions regarding the spectral dependence of the aerosol total and backscatter coefficients.