Performance Characteristics of Detector Devices Used In Lidar System

Abstract: Lidar is an acronym for Light detection and Ranging. It is same as the principle of radar. Lidar is a powerful and versatile remote sensing technique in which a beam of light is used to make range resolved measurements and concentration of aerosol particles. Lidar applications need to deal with the detection of weak pulse signals, wide pass bands of receiving subsystem, and potentially intense sky background. The present work involves the processing of lidar signals under sky background for the prediction of APD/PMT (Avalanche Photodiode/Photo Multiplier Tube) detector performance and noise sources present in the atmosphere and in the electronics of the system reduces the performance of lidar. This process will mainly concentrate on the data collected from the signals under intense background conditions from a lidar situated at National Atmospheric Research Laboratory, Gadanki. This project deals with the performance of APD/PMT detectors under sky background. By normalizing all photo detector noises to quantum noise, to obtain quantitate expressions for degradation of signal to noise ratio, increasing threshold sensitivity, and decreasing lidar operation range. The lidar range taken at Ultra-Violet, Visible, Near Infrared region. Based on these observations the system performance can be predicted.

Keywords: Lidar, Photo detector, Avalanche Photodiode, Photo Multiplier Tube.