Research Projects

The measurement of ozone concentrations by ground-based instruments using light detecting and ranging (lidar) systems needs to be verified by reliable observations. A light aircraft, equipped with meteorological and air quality measuring instruments, was flown in conjunction with lidar operations near Victorville, California during the period from August 3 to 11, 1995. Vertical soundings were made by the aircraft to compare the lidar results to traditional aircraft measurements. The results from this project show that the two methods do not agree when measuring the same vertical profiles and that further refinement of the lidar system or its data processing algorithms are needed prior to independent operations.