High-range-resolution velocity-estimation techniques for coherent Doppler lidars with exponentially shaped laser pulses

Appl Opt. 2002 Mar 20;41(9):1741-9. doi: 10.1364/ao.41.001741.

Abstract

On the basis of an analysis of the autocovariance of the complex heterodyne signal, some novel algorithms are derived and investigated for recovering the nonuniform Doppler-velocity coherent-lidar profiles within the lidar resolution interval conditioned by the sensing laser-pulse length. The case of exponentially shaped sensing laser pulses is considered. The algorithm performance and efficiency are studied and illustrated by computer simulations (based on the use of pulse models and real laser pulses), taking into account the influence of additive noise and radial-velocity fluctuations. It is shown that, at some reasonable number of signal realizations used and with appropriate data processing to suppress the noise effects, the Doppler-velocity profiles can be determined with a considerably shorter resolution interval in comparison with that (usually accepted as a lower bound) determined by the pulse length.