Preliminary analysis of ground based lidar backscattered signal and performance evaluation in Penang Island

Lidar is a widely used instrument by scientists around the world because of its high temporal and spatial resolution. With these characteristics, the interpretation of lower atmosphere behavior is improved, especially for the structure of the boundary layer, strongly related to air quality in the region. For the first time a backscattering lidar with wavelength 355 nm and Raman capabilities produced by Raymetrics was operated in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in Penang Island. Due to operational constraints, this study will only discuss backscattering signal at 60 degrees zenithal angle shooting. From this study, we found that the lidar signal was extinguished very quickly and with maximum range of 3 kilometers for 30 seconds temporal resolution. The signal was extremely noisy in this study and even after subtracting the backgrounds such as solar radiation in the range corrected signal. Dead-time correction was then applied to improve the lidar signal. The better signal for the near and far ranges of this angle shooting, gluing both analog and photon is necessary. Temporal evolution was plotted to determine the planetary boundary layer (PBL) structure and the altitude of PBL also can be identified. Moreover, cloud distribution and aerosol concentration pattern can be structured from the temporal evolution graph. However, for identifying the tendency of PBL structure in Penang Island, longer period and continuous data acquisition were needed. ? 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.