Patent attributes
A system assesses a column of gas in an atmosphere. The system includes an optical transmitter for transmitting (a) an online signal tuned to an online wavelength of gas, (b) an offline signal tuned to an offline wavelength of the gas, and (c) an optical signal for providing altimetry data. A modulator is included for modulating the online signal with a first stepped chirp waveform and modulating the offline signal with a second stepped chirp waveform. A processor assesses the column of gas, after receiving a returned online signal, a returned offline signal and a returned optical signal. A lock-in amplifier is included for (a) multiplying a returned signal with the first stepped chirp waveform to obtain a detected online signal, and (b) multiplying the returned signal with the second stepped chirp waveform to obtain a detected offline signal. The processor is configured to remove ground reflections from the optical signal to obtain scattered noise, and assess the column of gas based on the scattered noise. The processor is also configured to (a) multiply an estimated returned online signal with the first stepped chirp waveform to obtain a simulated cloud only online signal, and (b) multiply an estimated returned offline signal with the second stepped chirp waveform to obtain a simulated cloud only offline signal. In addition, the processor is configured to assess the column of gas by performing regression between the detected online and offline signals and the simulated online and offline signals.
