TERRISCOPE: AN OPTICAL REMOTE SENSING RESEARCH PLATFORM USING AIRCRAFT AND UAS FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION OF CONTINENTAL SURFACES

A new elastic lidar inversion equation is presented. It is based on the backscattering signal from a surface reference target rather than that from a volumetric layer of reference as is usually done. The method presented can be used in the case of airborne elastic lidar measurements or when the lidar–target line is horizontal. Also, a new algorithm is described to retrieve the lidar ratio and the backscattering coefficient of an aerosol plume without any a priori assumptions about the plume.