Browsing by Author "Obland, Michael Drew"

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Water vapor profiling using a widely tunable amplified diode laser differential absorption lidar (DIAL)
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2007) Obland, Michael Drew; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Joseph A. Shaw
Water vapor is one of he most significant constituents of the atmosphere because of its role in cloud formation, precipitation, and interactions with electromagnetic radiation, especially its absorption of longwave infrared radiation. Some details of the role of water and related feedback mechanisms in the Earth system need to be characterized better if local weather, global climate, and the water cycle are to be understood. Water vapor profiles are currently obtained with several remote sensing techniques, such as microwave radiometers, passive instruments like the Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI), and Raman lidar. Each of these instruments has some disadvantage, such as only producing column integrated water vapor amounts or being large, overly customized, and costly, making them difficult to use for deployment in networks or onboard satellites to measure water vapor profiles. This thesis work involved the design, construction, and testing of a highly-tunable Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) instrument utilizing an all-semiconductor transmitter.