Atmospheric visibility sensor based on backscattering using correlation coding method

Abstract

An new atmospheric visibility sensor is described which uses an empirical relationship between atmospheric visibility and lidar backscatter signals. Specifically, autocorrelation analysis is performed for lidar backscatter signals and the autocorrelation coefficients are shown to be a function of the correlation distance. The slope of this function is then connected to the atmospheric visibility under different weather conditions. It is experimentally demonstrated that this new sensor can reliably estimate the atmospheric visibility in the range of 0–1,200 m.