A 1.8 m Class Pathfinder Raman LIDAR for the Northern Site of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory—Performance
The Barcelona Raman LIDAR (BRL) will provide continuous monitoring of the aerosol extinction profile along the line of sight of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO). It will be located at its Northern site (CTAO-N) on the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos. This article presents the...
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MDPI AG
2025-05-01
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| author | Pedro José Bauzá-Ruiz Oscar Blanch Paolo G. Calisse Anna Campoy-Ordaz Sidika Merve Çolak Michele Doro Lluis Font Markus Gaug Roger Grau Darko Kolar Camilla Maggio Manel Martinez Samo Stanič Santiago Ubach Marko Zavrtanik Miha Živec |
| author_facet | Pedro José Bauzá-Ruiz Oscar Blanch Paolo G. Calisse Anna Campoy-Ordaz Sidika Merve Çolak Michele Doro Lluis Font Markus Gaug Roger Grau Darko Kolar Camilla Maggio Manel Martinez Samo Stanič Santiago Ubach Marko Zavrtanik Miha Živec |
| author_sort | Pedro José Bauzá-Ruiz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The Barcelona Raman LIDAR (BRL) will provide continuous monitoring of the aerosol extinction profile along the line of sight of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO). It will be located at its Northern site (CTAO-N) on the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos. This article presents the performance of the pathfinder Barcelona Raman LIDAR (pBRL), a prototype instrument for the final BRL. Power budget simulations were carried out for the pBRL operating under various conditions, including clear nights, moon conditions, and dust intrusions. The LIDAR PreProcessing (LPP) software suite is presented, which includes several new statistical methods for background subtraction, signal gluing, ground layer and cloud detection and inversion, based on two elastic and one Raman lines. Preliminary test campaigns were conducted, first close to Barcelona and later at CTAO-N, albeit during moonlit nights only. The pBRL, under these non-optimal conditions, achieves maximum ranges up to about 35 km, range resolution of about 50 m for strongly absorbing dust layers, and 500 m for optically thin clouds with the Raman channel only, leading to similar resolutions for the LIDAR ratios and Ångström exponents. Given the reasonable agreement between the extinction coefficients obtained from the Raman and elastic lines independently, an accuracy of aerosol optical depth retrieval in the order of 0.05 can be assumed with the current setup. The results show that the pBRL can provide valuable scientific results on aerosol characteristics and structure, although not all performance requirements could be validated under the conditions found at the two test sites. Several moderate hardware improvements are planned for its final upgraded version, such as gated PMTs for the elastic channels and a reduced-power laser with a higher repetition rate, to ensure that the data acquisition system is not saturated and therefore not affected by residual ringing. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ac9f502b6a2e4d52911e885f94f131e9 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
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| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj-art-ac9f502b6a2e4d52911e885f94f131e92025-08-20T03:46:42ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922025-05-011711181510.3390/rs17111815A 1.8 m Class Pathfinder Raman LIDAR for the Northern Site of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory—PerformancePedro José Bauzá-Ruiz0Oscar Blanch1Paolo G. Calisse2Anna Campoy-Ordaz3Sidika Merve Çolak4Michele Doro5Lluis Font6Markus Gaug7Roger Grau8Darko Kolar9Camilla Maggio10Manel Martinez11Samo Stanič12Santiago Ubach13Marko Zavrtanik14Miha Živec15Departament de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and CERES-IEEC, 08193 Bellaterra, SpainInstitut de Fisica d’Altes Energies (IFAE), 08193 Bellaterra, SpainCherenkov Telescope Array Observatory gGmbH (CTAO gGmbH), Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, GermanyDepartament de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and CERES-IEEC, 08193 Bellaterra, SpainInstitut de Fisica d’Altes Energies (IFAE), 08193 Bellaterra, SpainDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of Padova, I-35131 Padova, ItalyDepartament de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and CERES-IEEC, 08193 Bellaterra, SpainDepartament de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and CERES-IEEC, 08193 Bellaterra, SpainInstitut de Fisica d’Altes Energies (IFAE), 08193 Bellaterra, SpainCenter for Astrophysics and Cosmology, University of Nova Gorica, Vipavska 13, 5000 Nova Gorica, SloveniaDepartament de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and CERES-IEEC, 08193 Bellaterra, SpainInstitut de Fisica d’Altes Energies (IFAE), 08193 Bellaterra, SpainCenter for Astrophysics and Cosmology, University of Nova Gorica, Vipavska 13, 5000 Nova Gorica, SloveniaDepartament de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and CERES-IEEC, 08193 Bellaterra, SpainCenter for Astrophysics and Cosmology, University of Nova Gorica, Vipavska 13, 5000 Nova Gorica, SloveniaCenter for Astrophysics and Cosmology, University of Nova Gorica, Vipavska 13, 5000 Nova Gorica, SloveniaThe Barcelona Raman LIDAR (BRL) will provide continuous monitoring of the aerosol extinction profile along the line of sight of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO). It will be located at its Northern site (CTAO-N) on the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos. This article presents the performance of the pathfinder Barcelona Raman LIDAR (pBRL), a prototype instrument for the final BRL. Power budget simulations were carried out for the pBRL operating under various conditions, including clear nights, moon conditions, and dust intrusions. The LIDAR PreProcessing (LPP) software suite is presented, which includes several new statistical methods for background subtraction, signal gluing, ground layer and cloud detection and inversion, based on two elastic and one Raman lines. Preliminary test campaigns were conducted, first close to Barcelona and later at CTAO-N, albeit during moonlit nights only. The pBRL, under these non-optimal conditions, achieves maximum ranges up to about 35 km, range resolution of about 50 m for strongly absorbing dust layers, and 500 m for optically thin clouds with the Raman channel only, leading to similar resolutions for the LIDAR ratios and Ångström exponents. Given the reasonable agreement between the extinction coefficients obtained from the Raman and elastic lines independently, an accuracy of aerosol optical depth retrieval in the order of 0.05 can be assumed with the current setup. The results show that the pBRL can provide valuable scientific results on aerosol characteristics and structure, although not all performance requirements could be validated under the conditions found at the two test sites. Several moderate hardware improvements are planned for its final upgraded version, such as gated PMTs for the elastic channels and a reduced-power laser with a higher repetition rate, to ensure that the data acquisition system is not saturated and therefore not affected by residual ringing.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/11/1815Raman LIDARaerosolsatmospheric effectsgamma-ray astrophysicsLicelpower budget |
| spellingShingle | Pedro José Bauzá-Ruiz Oscar Blanch Paolo G. Calisse Anna Campoy-Ordaz Sidika Merve Çolak Michele Doro Lluis Font Markus Gaug Roger Grau Darko Kolar Camilla Maggio Manel Martinez Samo Stanič Santiago Ubach Marko Zavrtanik Miha Živec A 1.8 m Class Pathfinder Raman LIDAR for the Northern Site of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory—Performance Remote Sensing Raman LIDAR aerosols atmospheric effects gamma-ray astrophysics Licel power budget |
| title | A 1.8 m Class Pathfinder Raman LIDAR for the Northern Site of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory—Performance |
| title_full | A 1.8 m Class Pathfinder Raman LIDAR for the Northern Site of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory—Performance |
| title_fullStr | A 1.8 m Class Pathfinder Raman LIDAR for the Northern Site of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory—Performance |
| title_full_unstemmed | A 1.8 m Class Pathfinder Raman LIDAR for the Northern Site of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory—Performance |
| title_short | A 1.8 m Class Pathfinder Raman LIDAR for the Northern Site of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory—Performance |
| title_sort | 1 8 m class pathfinder raman lidar for the northern site of the cherenkov telescope array observatory performance |
| topic | Raman LIDAR aerosols atmospheric effects gamma-ray astrophysics Licel power budget |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/11/1815 |
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