Tropospheric Ozone sensing with a differential absorption lidar based on single CO₂ Raman cell

Abstract. This study presents the development and performance evaluation of an ozone differential absorption lidar system. The system could effectively obtain vertical profiles of lower tropospheric ozone in an altitude range of 0.3 to 4 km with high spatiotemporal resolutions. The system emits three laser beams at wavelengths of 276 nm, 287 nm, 299 nm by using the stimulated Raman effect of carbon dioxide (CO₂). A 250 mm telescope and a grating spectrometer are used to collect and separate the backscattering signals at the three wavelengths. Considering the influences of aerosol interference and statistical error, a wavelength pair of 276 nm–287 nm is used for the altitude below 600 m and a wavelength pair of 287 nm–299 nm is used for the altitude above 600 m to invert ozone concentration. We also evaluated the errors caused by the uncertainty of the wavelength index. The developed ozone lidar was deployed in a field campaign that was conducted to measure the vertical profiles of ozone using a tethered balloon platform. The lidar observations agree very well with those of the tethered balloon platform.