Atmospheric Temperature Profiling using Rotational Raman Lidar Measurements with a 32-Channel Spectral Detector

Atmospheric backscatter measurements with lidar at 355 nm laser wavelength were conducted at York University. The novel combination of the lidar system with a new 32-channel spectral detector made possible detecting photon-counting signals for multiple wavelengths simultaneously. The goal of this research was to derive atmospheric temperature profiles using the rotational Raman backscatter signal. The temperature was derived using the ratio of two wavelength intervals in the rotational Raman backscatter spectrum. A calibration function for the signal ratio and temperature on June 6, 2019 was found using temperature data from radiosonde measurements in Buffalo. The calibration function was used to derive temperature from ground up to 1200 m using lidar measurements on April 18, June 11 and June 12 in 2019. The lidar-calculated temperature profile had a mean deviation of 2.14 K from the radiosonde temperature values. The method requires improvements, such as controlling the temperature of the edge filter to minimize changes in the calibration from day to day.