System description of the mobile LIDAR of the CSIR, South Africa

  • A. Sharma CSIR National Laser Centre, P.O. Box 395, Pretoria 0001, South Africa.
  • V. Sivakumar CSIR National Laser Centre, P.O. Box 395, Pretoria 0001, South Africa. Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa.
  • C. Bollig CSIR National Laser Centre, P.O. Box 395, Pretoria 0001, South Africa.
  • C. van der Westhuizen CSIR National Laser Centre, P.O. Box 395, Pretoria 0001, South Africa.
  • D. Moema CSIR National Laser Centre, P.O. Box 395, Pretoria 0001, South Africa.

Abstract

South Africa’s first mobile LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging)
system is being developed at the National Laser Centre (NLC) of the
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria
(25°45’S; 28°17’E). The system is designed primarily for remote
sensing of the atmosphere. At present, the system is being optimised
for measuring vertical atmospheric backscatter profiles of aerosols
and clouds. In this paper, we describe the complete LIDAR system,
including laser transmission, telescope configuration, data acquisition,
data archival and post-processing.