Raman-shifted Eye-safe Aerosol Lidar (REAL) at California State University, Chico


This page updated May 28, 2009

Chair’s Air Pollution Seminar

Tuesday, June 23, 2009
1:30 - 3:30 p.m., PDT
Sierra Hearing Room, Second Floor
1001 I Street, Sacramento

This event is being Webcast, click here to view
Webcast viewers: Please send your questions during broadcast to: sierrarm@calepa.ca.gov
Presentation is available at this link

 Raman-shifted Eye-safe Aerosol Lidar
(REAL)
at California State University, Chico

Shane D. Mayor, Ph.D.

Department of Geosciences,
Department of Physics
California State University, Chico
Elastic backscatter lidars have been around for almost as long as the laser.  So, what possibly can be new?

In this seminar, the speaker will show that achieving high signal-to-noise-ratio backscatter from a single pulse, at a brisk pulse-rate, with an invisible beam, excellent range-resolution, and ocular safety opens new opportunities for observations in boundary layer meteorology.  The performance of REAL (Raman-shifted Eye-safe Aerosol Lidar) enables the creation of time-lapse animations of atmospheric structure and flow.  Furthermore, it can operate in urban areas or in close proximity to other instruments and platforms where eye-safety is imperative.

The first part of the seminar will describe the motivation for the instrument development, the ocular safety issue, and some of the laser and optical engineering challenges that were overcome to create the lidar.

The second and lengthier part of the seminar will show examples of data, mostly in the form of time-lapse animations of atmospheric boundary layer phenomena.  These include flow over complex terrain, sea-breeze fronts, and the interplay between fine-scale gravity waves and turbulence in a weakly stable nocturnal boundary layer in California. 

Shane D. Mayor, Ph.D., holds a B.S. in meteorology from Millersville, University of Pennsylvania, an M.S. in meteorology from Saint Louis University, and a Ph.D. in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Following a postdoctoral fellowship in the Advanced Studies Program at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), where he began the development of REAL, he joined NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) as a scientist in the Atmospheric Technology Division.  In 2008 Dr. Mayor and the REAL moved to California State University, Chico.  His wife, Dr. Anna Petrova-Mayor, teaches courses in lasers and optics in the Physics Department at Chico State. 

For information on this seminar please contact:
Ash Lashari, Ph.D. at (916) 323-1506 or send email to: klashgar@arb.ca.gov

For information on this seminar and Series please contact:
Peter Mathews at (916) 323-8711 or send email to: pmathews@arb.ca.gov

For a complete listing of the ARB Chairman's Series and the related documentation for
each one of the series please check this page

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