J. L. Guerrero Rascado1,2, F. Navas Guzmán1,2, J. A. Díaz3, J. A. Bravo Aranda1,2, L. Alados Arboledas1,2

1Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad de Granada, Granada, 18071, Spain
2Centro Andaluz de Medio Ambiente, Junta de Andalucía, Universidad de Granada, Granada, 18071, Spain
3Departamento de Óptica, Universidad de Granada, Granada, 18071, Spain

 

The lidar technique is a useful tool to monitor the atmosphere with a high spatial and temporal resolution. As is known, all experimental devices must be calibrated to obtain trustworthy measurements. However, an absolute calibration is not possible in lidar measurements because of the complexity of the lidar system itself.
Within the “Quality Assurance” activity of EARLINET (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network), the quality of the lidar measurements of the EARLINET Granada station have been tested. This work is devoted to the analysis and characterization of the optical subsystem for a multichannel Raman lidar at the EARLINET Granada station by means of several tools. On the one hand, the Telecover test compares lidar signals using different parts of the receiver telescope and allows characterizing the lidar performance in the near range. On the other hand, the Rayleight fit (molecular fit) is a test to estimate the quality of lidar signals in the far range, comparing the experimental lidar signal with a molecular one. In addition, dark current test to characterize electronic noise and zero-bin calibration to detect delays between the laser shots and real detection of signals have been performed.