Abstract

A narrowband lidar has been developed for measuring mesospheric sodium temperature profiles over Antarctica. The transmitter is composed of two injection seeded Nd:YAG lasers of 1064 nm and 1319 nm which generate the 589 nm laser wavelength tuned to sodium D₂ resonant line by sum frequency technique with a BBO crystal. The linewidth of 589 nm is narrowed less than 100 MHz, and the output energy is 40 mJ/pulse with a repetition rate of 10 Hz and a pulse width of 40 ns. The temperature profile retrieved by two frequency technique is in good agreement with that by sodium D₂ Doppler profile fitting technique. The lidar technique and our preliminary u u data of mesospheric temperature structures over Syowa station, Antarctica (60°00′S, 39°35′E), are described.

© 2001 Optical Society of America