Patent attributes
Apparatus and associated methods relate to determining metrics of a cloud atmosphere using time difference measurements. A light projector projects a pulse of light into a cloud atmosphere, and a light sensor detects a portion of the projected pulse of light backscattered by the cloud atmosphere. A backscatter coefficient is calculated based on peak amplitude of the detected portion. An optical extinction coefficient is calculated based on a time difference between a peak time and a post-peak time, which correspond to times at which the peak amplitude of the detected portion occurs and at which the detected portion equals or crosses a sub-peak threshold, respectively. In some embodiments, a logarithm amplifier is used to facilitate processing of signals of widely varying amplitudes. In some embodiments, the sub-peak threshold is calculated as a fraction of the peak amplitude of the detected portion.
