New prototype of very compact LIDAR for atmospheric particulate monitoring

CO.RI.S.T.A. led a research project funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research to realize a portable lidar system to monitor atmospheric particulate. The main goal of the project is to get a very compact, inexpensive, easy-and-safe use system. The designed lidar system is provided with an optical apparatus of emission/reception assembled in bistatic configuration. Thanks to its limited size (height 1 m, width 1 m) and light weight (less than 50 Kg), the system can be easily moved for in situ measurements. To maintain a high efficiency and guarantee reliability we use a pulsed Nd:YAG laser emitting at 532nm and 355nm. The radiation is sent into the atmosphere by a remote alignment beam-steerer. The receiving telescope has a Cassegrain configuration with a spherical primary mirror and an elliptical secondary mirror. Two acquisition channels were realised for analog and digital acquisition. Both the telescope and the optical acquisition channel have been modelled and deeply analysed with Zemax, a 3D simulation program which allows to design optical systems and to investigate their performance. Intercalibration measurements of the prototype and aerosols backscattering measurements will be presented.