Platform-Motion Correction of Velocity Measured by Doppler Lidar

The NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) has two coherent Doppler lidar systems that have been deployed on board research vessels to obtain data during several experiments. The instruments measure the wind velocity relative to the motion of the lidar; therefore, correction for the motion of the platform is required. This article gives a thorough analysis of the correction for lidar velocity measurements. The analysis is general enough to be applied to Doppler velocity measurements from all monostatic ship- and aircraftborne lidars and radars, and generalization to bistatic systems is achievable. The correction is demonstrated using miniature master-oscillator power-amplifier (mini-MOPA) Doppler velocity data obtained during the Rain in Cumulus over the Ocean (RICO) experiment.