Vol. 6, issue 08, article # 11

Abstract:

A spatial distribution of irradiance over an image plane of a lidar receiver is studied for the case of bistatic arrangement of atmospheric sounding of a randomly rough surface with a complex reflectivity of locally flat elements of the surface. Expressions are derived for the average irradiance, image size, and its shift with respect to a photodetector center in sounding of a surface with a local phase function having diffuse and quasispecular components through an optically dense aerosol atmosphere. It is shown that an irradiance structure strongly depends on the diffuse-to-quasispecular component ratio of the scattering phase function of the surface, on statistical characteristics of the surface roughness, and on the atmospheric conditions as well.