Monitoring of an industrial area in southern Italy by using a multiwavelength lidar

A multiwavelength lidar system has been developed for air monitoring of an industrial area in southern Italy. The system based on two dye lasers pumped by a Nd:YAG allows us to perform differential absorption lidar measurements in the UV spectral region together with measurements of water vapour, atmospheric transmissivity and aerosol load. The system has been designed to deliver simultaneously in the atmosphere the Nd:YAG fundamental and its harmonics (II and III) as well as the output beams of two dye lasers. The return signals, collected by means of two Newtonian telescopes, make it possible to retrieve information on atmospheric aerosols, water vapour and pollutans concentration, density and transmissivity profiles. In this paper, we report the preliminary results obtained in a measurement campaign performed in the periods of November-December'98, and June-July'99.