Depolarization ratio, SNR estimation and polarization sensitivity analysis for a commercial Raman depolarization lidar system

摘要

In this paper we focus on the estimation of the Signal-to-Noise (SNR) ratio of a 3-channel commercial (Raymetics) volcanic ash detection system, (LR111-D300), already operating in UK, and also, we perform a basic lidar polarization sensitivity analysis. The results show that SNR values are higher than 10 for ranges up to 13 km for daytime conditions. This is a quite good result compared with other values presented in bibliography and prove that such system is able to detect volcanic ash detection over a range of 20 km. We also assess the lidar polarization sensitivity and then, we estimate the linear depolarization ratio. By careful choice of the optical components (emitting and receiving optics), it has been shown that uncertainties of polarization states at receiver (and thus too depolarization ratio estimation) can be much reduced.