New Examination of the Raman Lidar Technique for Water Vapor and Aerosols: Evaluating the Temperature Dependent Lidar Equations - Paper 1

The intent of this paper and its companion is to compile together the essential information required for the analysis of Raman lidar water vapor and aerosol data acquired using a single laser wavelength. In this first paper several details concerning the evaluation of the lidar equation when measuring Raman scattering are considered. These details include the influence of the temperature dependence of both pure rotational and vibrational-rotational Raman scattering on the lidar profile. These are evaluated for the first time using a new form of the lidar equation. The results indicate that, for the range of temperatures encountered in the troposphere, the magnitude of the temperature dependent effect can reach 10% or more for narrowband Raman water vapor measurements. Also the calculation of atmospheric transmission is examined carefully including the effects of depolarization. Different formulations of Rayleigh cross section determination commonly used in the lidar field are compared revealing differences up to 5% among the formulations. The influence of multiple scattering on the measurement of aerosol extinction using the Raman lidar technique is considered as are several photon pulse-pileup correction techniques.