New research tool or just an idea?

[pyroartist]

Recently a Chinese article was published that claims a new LIDAR technique for atmospheric sensing. The article only consists of the Abstract with no further information. It is very brief which makes me suspect this is someones pipe dream. A link to the article is given below. The "new" concept is explained in the following sentence: "The implication of the Scheimpflug principle is that when a laser beam is transmitted into the atmosphere, the backscattering echo of the entire illuminating probe volume is still in focus simultaneously without diminishing the aperture as long as the object plane, image plane and the lens plane intersect with each other". He then goes on to claim "...continuous wave light sources such as diode lasers can be employed for remote sensing instead of using complicated nano second pulsed light sources.The SLidar system is also a robust and inexpensive system based on compact laser diodes and array detectors."
If there is anyone out there who could explain how this system is capable of seeing aerosols by illuminating an area of the atmosphere and taking images with a detector array? I am not a physicist but I fail to see how aligning the lens in the methodr of the Scheimpflug principle will make this work. Thanks for any insight on this.
Wikipedia has more info on the basic principle here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheimpflug_principleMei, Liang. "Remote sensing of atmospheric aerosol and gas using scheimpflug lidar based on diode lasers". Progress in Electromagnetic Research Symposium (PIERS). ISBN 978-1-5090-6094-8.

 

[Drakkith]

Do you have a direct link to the paper? The current link just sends me to wikipedia.

 

[davenn]

If there is anyone out there who could explain how this system is capable of seeing aerosols by illuminating an area of the atmosphere and taking images with a detector array? I am not a physicist but I fail to see how aligning the lens in the methodr of the Scheimpflug principle will make this work. Thanks for any insight on this.

I personally don't know if using this "Scheimpflug principle" method has any significant advantages over the existing atmospheric research using lasers
It was around 30 years ago when I visited a short term NOAA installation at Lauder in the central South Island of New Zealand. The Lauder atmospheric research centre is/was ( I am not sure of it's current activities 30 yrs later) one of New Zealand's main places for atmospheric studies. I was given a full tour of the US equipment where they fired 30W lasers of different types vertically up into the atmosphere to measure compounds present in the air column. This was at a time when the growing size of the Ozone Hole was of great concern.

Round trip reflection times and spectroscopic analysis of the reflected laser beams yielded information of the composition of the atmosphere at different levels up to approximately 50 km

looks like the station is still very active
https://www.niwa.co.nz/atmosphere/facilities/lauder-atmospheric-research-stationDave

 

[pyroartist]

Drakkith; The paper itself costs $35 from IEEE and it contains nothing more than what you see on Wikipedia. I got a refund!
Dave, Thanks for that link. I will contact them.