This work describes the design and testing of a highly-tunable differential absorption lidar (DIA... more This work describes the design and testing of a highly-tunable differential absorption lidar (DIAL) instrument utilizing an all-semiconductor transmitter. This new DIAL instrument transmitter has a highly-tunable external cavity diode laser (ECDL) as a seed laser source for two cascaded commercial tapered amplifiers. The transmitter has the capability of tuning over a range of ~ 17 nm centered at about 832 nm to selectively probe several water vapor absorption lines. This capability has been requested in other recent DIAL experiments for wavelengths near 830 nm. The transmitter produces pulse energies of approximately 0.25 μJ at a repetition rate of 20 kHz. The linewidth is exceptionally narrow at <0.3 MHz, with frequency stability that has been shown to be +/-88 MHz and spectral purity of 0.995. Tests of the DIAL instrument to prove the validity of its measurements were undertaken. Preliminary water vapor profiles, taken in Bozeman, Montana, agree to within 5-60% with profiles derived from co-located radiosondes 800 meters above ground altitude. Below 800 meters, the measurements are biased low due to a number of systematic issues that are discussed. The long averaging times required by low-power systems have been shown to lead to biases in data, and indeed, our results showed strong disagreements on nights when the atmosphere was changing rapidly, such as on windy nights or when a storm system was entering the area. Improvements to the system to correct the major systematic biases are described.
Lidar Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring VIII, 2007
It is widely agreed that water vapor is one of the most important gasses in the atmosphere with r... more It is widely agreed that water vapor is one of the most important gasses in the atmosphere with regards to its role in local weather, global climate, and the water cycle. Especially with the growing concern for understanding and predicting global climate change, detailed data of water vapor distribution and flux and related feedback mechanisms in the lowest 3 km
Lidar Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring X, 2009
A compact, widely tunable semiconductor based water vapor differential absorption lidar (DIAL) ha... more A compact, widely tunable semiconductor based water vapor differential absorption lidar (DIAL) has been built and tested at Montana State University (MSU). The laser transmitter uses a tunable external cavity diode laser (ECDL) with a center wavelength of 830 nm to injection seed two cascaded tapered semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), producing 1.5 micro joule pulses at a pulse repetition rate and pulse width duration of 20 kHz and 1000 ns respectively, allowing for water vapor number density retrievals up to approximately 4 km. Water vapor number density profiles collected with the MSU water vapor DIAL will be compared with co-located radiosonde measurements, demonstrating the instruments ability to measure daytime and nighttime water vapor profiles in the lower troposphere.
ABSTRACT A laser transmitter has been developed and incorporated into a micro-pulse differential ... more ABSTRACT A laser transmitter has been developed and incorporated into a micro-pulse differential absorption lidar (DIAL) for water vapor profiling in the lower troposphere as an important step towards long-term autonomous field operation. The laser transmitter utilizes two distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) diode lasers to injection seed a pulsed tapered semiconductor optical amplifier (TSOA), and is capable of producing up to 10 mu J of pulse energy with a 1 mu s pulse duration and a 10 kHz pulse repetition frequency. The on-line wavelength of the laser transmitter can operate anywhere along the water vapor absorption feature centered at 828.187 nm (in vacuum) depending on the prevailing atmospheric conditions, while the off-line wavelength operates at 828.287 nm. This laser transmitter has been incorporated into a DIAL instrument utilizing a 35.6 cm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and fiber coupled avalanche photodiode (APD) operating in the photon counting mode. The performance of the DIAL instrument was demonstrated over a ten-day observation period. During this observation period, data from radiosondes were used to retrieve water vapor number density profiles for comparisons with the number density profiles retrieved from the DIAL data.
Methane is an efficient absorber of infrared radiation and a potent greenhouse gas with a warming... more Methane is an efficient absorber of infrared radiation and a potent greenhouse gas with a warming potential 72 times greater than carbon dioxide on a per molecule basis. Development of methane active remote sensing capability using the differential absorption lidar (DIAL) technique enables scientific assessments of the gas emission and impacts on the climate. A performance evaluation of a pulsed DIAL system for monitoring atmospheric methane is presented. This system leverages a robust injection-seeded pulsed Nd:YAG pumped Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO) laser technology operating in the 1.645 µm spectral band. The system also leverages an efficient low noise, commercially available, InGaAs avalanche photo-detector (APD). Lidar signals and error budget are analyzed for system operation on ground in the range-resolved DIAL mode and from airborne platforms in the integrated path DIAL (IPDA) mode. Results indicate system capability of measuring methane concentration profiles with &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;1.0% total error up to 4.5 km range with 5 minute averaging from ground. For airborne IPDA, the total error in the column dry mixing ratio is less than 0.3% with 0.1 sec average using ground returns. This system has a unique capability of combining signals from the atmospheric scattering from layers above the surface with ground return signals, which provides methane column measurement between the atmospheric scattering layer and the ground directly. In such case 0.5% and 1.2% total errors are achieved with 10 sec average from airborne platforms at 8 km and 15.24 km altitudes, respectively. Due to the pulsed nature of the transmitter, the system is relatively insensitive to aerosol and cloud interferences. Such DIAL system would be ideal for investigating high latitude methane releases over polar ice sheets, permafrost regions, wetlands, and over ocean during day and night. This system would have commercial potential for fossil fuel leaks detection and industrial monitoring applications.
A controlled field pilot has been developed in Bozeman, Montana, USA, to study near surface CO2 t... more A controlled field pilot has been developed in Bozeman, Montana, USA, to study near surface CO2 transport and detection technologies. A slotted horizontal well divided into six zones was installed in the shallow subsurface. The scale and CO2 release rates were chosen to be relevant to developing monitoring strategies for geological carbon storage. The field site was characterized before injection, and CO2 transport and concentrations in saturated soil and the vadose zone were modeled. Controlled releases of CO2 from the horizontal well were performed in the summers of 2007 and 2008, and collaborators from six national labs, three universities, and the U.S. Geological Survey investigated movement of CO2 through the soil, water, plants, and air with a wide range of near surface detection techniques. An overview of these results will be presented.
An all diode-laser-based micropulse differential absorption lidar (DIAL) laser transmitter for tr... more An all diode-laser-based micropulse differential absorption lidar (DIAL) laser transmitter for tropospheric water vapor and aerosol profiling is presented. The micropulse DIAL (MPD) transmitter utilizes two continuous wave (cw) external cavity diode lasers (ECDL) to seed an actively pulsed, overdriven tapered semiconductor optical amplifier (TSOA). The MPD laser produces up to 7 watts of peak power over a 1 µs pulse duration (7 µJ) and a 10 kHz pulse repetition frequency. Spectral switching between the online and offline seed lasers is achieved on a 1Hz basis using a fiber optic switch to allow for more accurate sampling of the atmospheric volume between the online and offline laser shots. The high laser spectral purity of greater than 0.9996 coupled with the broad tunability of the laser transmitter will allow for accurate measurements of tropospheric water vapor in a wide range of geographic locations under varying atmospheric conditions. This paper describes the design and performance characteristics of a third generation MPD laser transmitter with enhanced laser performance over the previous generation DIAL system.
A field facility has been developed to allow controlled studies of near surface CO 2 transport an... more A field facility has been developed to allow controlled studies of near surface CO 2 transport and detection technologies. The key component of the facility is a shallow, slotted horizontal well divided into six zones. The scale and fluxes were designed to address large scale CO 2 storage projects and desired retention rates for those projects. A wide variety of detection techniques were deployed by collaborators from 6 national labs, 2 universities, EPRI, and the USGS. Additionally, modeling of CO 2 transport and concentrations in the saturated soil and in the vadose zone was conducted. An overview of these results will be presented.
Recent advances using electronic feedback to control the op- tical cavity length of external cavi... more Recent advances using electronic feedback to control the op- tical cavity length of external cavity diode lasers ECDLs have led to extended continuous tuning ranges. Mode-hop-free tuning over more than 65 GHz has been demonstrated. The ability to tune ECDLs asross a wide range is particularly useful to differential absorption lidar DIAL systems that use ECDLs as seed laser sources.
ABSTRACT Atmospheric aerosol optical properties were observed from 21 to 27 September 2009 over B... more ABSTRACT Atmospheric aerosol optical properties were observed from 21 to 27 September 2009 over Bozeman, Montana, during a transitional period in which background polluted rural continental aerosols and well-aged biomass-burning aerosols were the dominant aerosol types of extremely fresh biomass-burning aerosols resulting from forest fires burning in the northwestern United States and Canada. Aerosol optical properties and relative humidity profiles were retrieved using an eye-safe micropulse water vapor differential absorption lidar (DIAL) (MP-DIAL), a single-channel backscatter lidar, a CIMEL solar radiometer as part of the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET), a ground-based integrating nephelometer, and aerosol products from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra and Aqua. Aerosol optical depths (AODs) measured during the case study ranged between 0.03 and 0.17 (0.015 and 0.075) at 532 nm (830 nm) as episodic combinations of fresh and aged biomass-burning aerosols dominated the optical depth of the pristinely clean background air. Here, a pristinely clean background refers to very low AOD conditions, not that the aerosol scattering and absorption properties are necessarily representative of a clean aerosol type. Diurnal variability in the aerosol extinction to backscatter ratio (Sa) of the background atmosphere derived from the two lidars, which ranged between 55 and 95 sr (50 and 90 sr) at 532 nm (830 nm), showed good agreement with retrievals from AERONET sun and sky measurements over the same time period but were consistently higher than some aerosol models had predicted. Sa measured during the episodic smoke events ranged on average from 60 to 80 sr (50 to 70 sr) at 532 nm (830 nm) while the very fresh biomass-burning aerosols were shown to exhibit significantly lower Sa ranging between 20 and 40 sr. The shortwave direct radiative forcing that was due to the intrusion of biomass-burning aerosols was calculated to be on average -10 W/m2 and was shown to compare favorably with regional-scale forcing calculations using MODIS-Terra and AERONET data in an effort to assess the accuracy of estimating the regional-scale aerosol direct radiative forcing effect using aerosol optical properties measured from a single rural site such as Bozeman, Montana.
Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 2009
A differential absorption lidar (DIAL) instrument for automated profiling of water vapor in the l... more A differential absorption lidar (DIAL) instrument for automated profiling of water vapor in the lower troposphere has been designed, tested, and is in routine operation at Montana State University. The laser transmitter for the DIAL instrument uses a widely tunable external cavity diode laser (ECDL) to injection seed two cascaded semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) to produce a laser transmitter that accesses the 824-841-nm spectral range. The DIAL receiver utilizes a 28-cm-diameter Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope; an avalanche photodiode (APD) detector; and a narrowband optical filter to collect, discriminate, and measure the scattered light. A technique of correcting for the wavelength-dependent incident angle upon the narrowband optical filter as a function of range has been developed to allow accurate water vapor profiles to be measured down to 225 m above the surface. Data comparisons using the DIAL instrument and collocated radiosonde measurements are presented demonstrating the capabilities of the DIAL instrument.
This work describes the design and testing of a highly-tunable differential absorption lidar (DIA... more This work describes the design and testing of a highly-tunable differential absorption lidar (DIAL) instrument utilizing an all-semiconductor transmitter. This new DIAL instrument transmitter has a highly-tunable external cavity diode laser (ECDL) as a seed laser source for two cascaded commercial tapered amplifiers. The transmitter has the capability of tuning over a range of ~ 17 nm centered at about 832 nm to selectively probe several water vapor absorption lines. This capability has been requested in other recent DIAL experiments for wavelengths near 830 nm. The transmitter produces pulse energies of approximately 0.25 μJ at a repetition rate of 20 kHz. The linewidth is exceptionally narrow at <0.3 MHz, with frequency stability that has been shown to be +/-88 MHz and spectral purity of 0.995. Tests of the DIAL instrument to prove the validity of its measurements were undertaken. Preliminary water vapor profiles, taken in Bozeman, Montana, agree to within 5-60% with profiles derived from co-located radiosondes 800 meters above ground altitude. Below 800 meters, the measurements are biased low due to a number of systematic issues that are discussed. The long averaging times required by low-power systems have been shown to lead to biases in data, and indeed, our results showed strong disagreements on nights when the atmosphere was changing rapidly, such as on windy nights or when a storm system was entering the area. Improvements to the system to correct the major systematic biases are described.
Lidar Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring VIII, 2007
It is widely agreed that water vapor is one of the most important gasses in the atmosphere with r... more It is widely agreed that water vapor is one of the most important gasses in the atmosphere with regards to its role in local weather, global climate, and the water cycle. Especially with the growing concern for understanding and predicting global climate change, detailed data of water vapor distribution and flux and related feedback mechanisms in the lowest 3 km
Lidar Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring X, 2009
A compact, widely tunable semiconductor based water vapor differential absorption lidar (DIAL) ha... more A compact, widely tunable semiconductor based water vapor differential absorption lidar (DIAL) has been built and tested at Montana State University (MSU). The laser transmitter uses a tunable external cavity diode laser (ECDL) with a center wavelength of 830 nm to injection seed two cascaded tapered semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), producing 1.5 micro joule pulses at a pulse repetition rate and pulse width duration of 20 kHz and 1000 ns respectively, allowing for water vapor number density retrievals up to approximately 4 km. Water vapor number density profiles collected with the MSU water vapor DIAL will be compared with co-located radiosonde measurements, demonstrating the instruments ability to measure daytime and nighttime water vapor profiles in the lower troposphere.
ABSTRACT A laser transmitter has been developed and incorporated into a micro-pulse differential ... more ABSTRACT A laser transmitter has been developed and incorporated into a micro-pulse differential absorption lidar (DIAL) for water vapor profiling in the lower troposphere as an important step towards long-term autonomous field operation. The laser transmitter utilizes two distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) diode lasers to injection seed a pulsed tapered semiconductor optical amplifier (TSOA), and is capable of producing up to 10 mu J of pulse energy with a 1 mu s pulse duration and a 10 kHz pulse repetition frequency. The on-line wavelength of the laser transmitter can operate anywhere along the water vapor absorption feature centered at 828.187 nm (in vacuum) depending on the prevailing atmospheric conditions, while the off-line wavelength operates at 828.287 nm. This laser transmitter has been incorporated into a DIAL instrument utilizing a 35.6 cm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and fiber coupled avalanche photodiode (APD) operating in the photon counting mode. The performance of the DIAL instrument was demonstrated over a ten-day observation period. During this observation period, data from radiosondes were used to retrieve water vapor number density profiles for comparisons with the number density profiles retrieved from the DIAL data.
Methane is an efficient absorber of infrared radiation and a potent greenhouse gas with a warming... more Methane is an efficient absorber of infrared radiation and a potent greenhouse gas with a warming potential 72 times greater than carbon dioxide on a per molecule basis. Development of methane active remote sensing capability using the differential absorption lidar (DIAL) technique enables scientific assessments of the gas emission and impacts on the climate. A performance evaluation of a pulsed DIAL system for monitoring atmospheric methane is presented. This system leverages a robust injection-seeded pulsed Nd:YAG pumped Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO) laser technology operating in the 1.645 µm spectral band. The system also leverages an efficient low noise, commercially available, InGaAs avalanche photo-detector (APD). Lidar signals and error budget are analyzed for system operation on ground in the range-resolved DIAL mode and from airborne platforms in the integrated path DIAL (IPDA) mode. Results indicate system capability of measuring methane concentration profiles with &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;1.0% total error up to 4.5 km range with 5 minute averaging from ground. For airborne IPDA, the total error in the column dry mixing ratio is less than 0.3% with 0.1 sec average using ground returns. This system has a unique capability of combining signals from the atmospheric scattering from layers above the surface with ground return signals, which provides methane column measurement between the atmospheric scattering layer and the ground directly. In such case 0.5% and 1.2% total errors are achieved with 10 sec average from airborne platforms at 8 km and 15.24 km altitudes, respectively. Due to the pulsed nature of the transmitter, the system is relatively insensitive to aerosol and cloud interferences. Such DIAL system would be ideal for investigating high latitude methane releases over polar ice sheets, permafrost regions, wetlands, and over ocean during day and night. This system would have commercial potential for fossil fuel leaks detection and industrial monitoring applications.
A controlled field pilot has been developed in Bozeman, Montana, USA, to study near surface CO2 t... more A controlled field pilot has been developed in Bozeman, Montana, USA, to study near surface CO2 transport and detection technologies. A slotted horizontal well divided into six zones was installed in the shallow subsurface. The scale and CO2 release rates were chosen to be relevant to developing monitoring strategies for geological carbon storage. The field site was characterized before injection, and CO2 transport and concentrations in saturated soil and the vadose zone were modeled. Controlled releases of CO2 from the horizontal well were performed in the summers of 2007 and 2008, and collaborators from six national labs, three universities, and the U.S. Geological Survey investigated movement of CO2 through the soil, water, plants, and air with a wide range of near surface detection techniques. An overview of these results will be presented.
An all diode-laser-based micropulse differential absorption lidar (DIAL) laser transmitter for tr... more An all diode-laser-based micropulse differential absorption lidar (DIAL) laser transmitter for tropospheric water vapor and aerosol profiling is presented. The micropulse DIAL (MPD) transmitter utilizes two continuous wave (cw) external cavity diode lasers (ECDL) to seed an actively pulsed, overdriven tapered semiconductor optical amplifier (TSOA). The MPD laser produces up to 7 watts of peak power over a 1 µs pulse duration (7 µJ) and a 10 kHz pulse repetition frequency. Spectral switching between the online and offline seed lasers is achieved on a 1Hz basis using a fiber optic switch to allow for more accurate sampling of the atmospheric volume between the online and offline laser shots. The high laser spectral purity of greater than 0.9996 coupled with the broad tunability of the laser transmitter will allow for accurate measurements of tropospheric water vapor in a wide range of geographic locations under varying atmospheric conditions. This paper describes the design and performance characteristics of a third generation MPD laser transmitter with enhanced laser performance over the previous generation DIAL system.
A field facility has been developed to allow controlled studies of near surface CO 2 transport an... more A field facility has been developed to allow controlled studies of near surface CO 2 transport and detection technologies. The key component of the facility is a shallow, slotted horizontal well divided into six zones. The scale and fluxes were designed to address large scale CO 2 storage projects and desired retention rates for those projects. A wide variety of detection techniques were deployed by collaborators from 6 national labs, 2 universities, EPRI, and the USGS. Additionally, modeling of CO 2 transport and concentrations in the saturated soil and in the vadose zone was conducted. An overview of these results will be presented.
Recent advances using electronic feedback to control the op- tical cavity length of external cavi... more Recent advances using electronic feedback to control the op- tical cavity length of external cavity diode lasers ECDLs have led to extended continuous tuning ranges. Mode-hop-free tuning over more than 65 GHz has been demonstrated. The ability to tune ECDLs asross a wide range is particularly useful to differential absorption lidar DIAL systems that use ECDLs as seed laser sources.
ABSTRACT Atmospheric aerosol optical properties were observed from 21 to 27 September 2009 over B... more ABSTRACT Atmospheric aerosol optical properties were observed from 21 to 27 September 2009 over Bozeman, Montana, during a transitional period in which background polluted rural continental aerosols and well-aged biomass-burning aerosols were the dominant aerosol types of extremely fresh biomass-burning aerosols resulting from forest fires burning in the northwestern United States and Canada. Aerosol optical properties and relative humidity profiles were retrieved using an eye-safe micropulse water vapor differential absorption lidar (DIAL) (MP-DIAL), a single-channel backscatter lidar, a CIMEL solar radiometer as part of the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET), a ground-based integrating nephelometer, and aerosol products from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra and Aqua. Aerosol optical depths (AODs) measured during the case study ranged between 0.03 and 0.17 (0.015 and 0.075) at 532 nm (830 nm) as episodic combinations of fresh and aged biomass-burning aerosols dominated the optical depth of the pristinely clean background air. Here, a pristinely clean background refers to very low AOD conditions, not that the aerosol scattering and absorption properties are necessarily representative of a clean aerosol type. Diurnal variability in the aerosol extinction to backscatter ratio (Sa) of the background atmosphere derived from the two lidars, which ranged between 55 and 95 sr (50 and 90 sr) at 532 nm (830 nm), showed good agreement with retrievals from AERONET sun and sky measurements over the same time period but were consistently higher than some aerosol models had predicted. Sa measured during the episodic smoke events ranged on average from 60 to 80 sr (50 to 70 sr) at 532 nm (830 nm) while the very fresh biomass-burning aerosols were shown to exhibit significantly lower Sa ranging between 20 and 40 sr. The shortwave direct radiative forcing that was due to the intrusion of biomass-burning aerosols was calculated to be on average -10 W/m2 and was shown to compare favorably with regional-scale forcing calculations using MODIS-Terra and AERONET data in an effort to assess the accuracy of estimating the regional-scale aerosol direct radiative forcing effect using aerosol optical properties measured from a single rural site such as Bozeman, Montana.
Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 2009
A differential absorption lidar (DIAL) instrument for automated profiling of water vapor in the l... more A differential absorption lidar (DIAL) instrument for automated profiling of water vapor in the lower troposphere has been designed, tested, and is in routine operation at Montana State University. The laser transmitter for the DIAL instrument uses a widely tunable external cavity diode laser (ECDL) to injection seed two cascaded semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) to produce a laser transmitter that accesses the 824-841-nm spectral range. The DIAL receiver utilizes a 28-cm-diameter Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope; an avalanche photodiode (APD) detector; and a narrowband optical filter to collect, discriminate, and measure the scattered light. A technique of correcting for the wavelength-dependent incident angle upon the narrowband optical filter as a function of range has been developed to allow accurate water vapor profiles to be measured down to 225 m above the surface. Data comparisons using the DIAL instrument and collocated radiosonde measurements are presented demonstrating the capabilities of the DIAL instrument.
Uploads
Papers by Amin Nehrir