title: Differential backscatter from the atmospheric aerosol: the implications for IR differential absorption lidar.
abstract: To avoid systematic errors in differential absorption lidar experiments, which use the atmospheric aerosol as a distributed reflector, the assumption has to be made that the volume backscattering coefficient is approximately the same at the two wavelengths. A model of the aerosol has been used to show that in the 9-11-microm region this assumption may be invalid since absorption by the aerosol makes the backscattering term a sensitive function of frequency and relative humidity. To illustrate the problem we examine five pairs of laser frequencies recommended in the literature for monitoring ammonia, ozone, ethylene, and Freon-11 and show that peak-to-peak differential backscatter of >10% is common across the whole humidity range. We also show that the sensitivity of backscattering to humidity changes is such that the volume backscattering coefficient at the on-line wavelength can become larger than the off-line value as the relative humidity increases, an effect that may nullify any rise in trace gas concentration that happens to take place.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Petheram