Lidar Sensors and Cyberinfrastructure for Arctic Atmospheric Research

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The investigators will conduct a five-year research program to develop a lidar sensor for the Arctic using state-of-the-art devices and a novel Internet-based data transport system to enable advancements in arctic atmospheric science. In particular, the lidar development will involve sensitive photon-counting detectors including a new infrared photon detector, a unique dual-polarized laser transmitter, and novel timing schemes to make Rayleigh-Mie-Raman (RMR) measurements from 5 to 90 km in altitude. Analysis of the RMR lidar measurements will provide unique vertical profiles of temperature and aerosol backscatter strength, extinction, shape and size from the arctic troposphere through the mesosphere with a vertical resolution of tens of meters and a temporal resolution of tens of minutes. These observations will be applicable to studies of polar stratospheric clouds, aerosols, and the vertical thermal structure of the winter arctic stratosphere. Remote operations will allow more event-driven operations, such as during stratospheric warming events, and, in general, more observing opportunities. The ultimate objective of the data transport system will be to make the lidar system accessible from remote locations and pave the way for the development of fully autonomous lidar systems. This capability would provide greater opportunity for lidar deployments in remote arctic locations with limited infrastructure. The observations will contribute to a distributed network of temperatures and aerosol measurements to support the Network for Detection of Stratospheric Change. The project will involve a graduate student, who will be trained in lidar technologies and stratospheric dynamics, and the data acquired will be rapidly and broadly disseminated for use by other researchers. Not only will the measurements and scientific results contribute to community-wide issues, but they will also be useful for calibration and validation of current and future spacecraft missions designed to observe middle atmosphere temperatures and aerosols.