title: GLITTER: new lidar technique for cloud-base altimetry. Description and initial aircraft measurements.
abstract: Knowledge of cloud-base heights is important for climate studies, weather, and military operations. Conventional lidar methods monitor cloud depths by direct transmission of the beam through the cloud and sensing the backscattered returns. These techniques are limited by severe optical scattering by cloud particles to thickness <0.5 km. We have conceived of a novel lidar method measurement for thick-cloud-base altimetry from above that is not restricted by cloud scattering. The new method, known as GLITTER (an acronym for glimpses of the lidar images through the empty regions), relies on cloud porosity and diffuse reflection from land features to sense cloud bottoms. An aircraft GLITTER lidar measured cloud bases at 3.7- and 4.5-km altitudes. These initial results represent a proof-of-principle demonstration of the new lidar method.
authors.affiliation: Electronics and Photonics Laboratory, The Aerospace Corporation, Mail Stop M2-253, P.O. Box 92957, Los Angeles, California 90009-2957, USA. gelbwachs@aero.org
authors.forename: Jerry A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Gelbwachs
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Farley