Performance evaluation of Rayleigh Doppler lidar with a metastable barium atomic filter for tropospheric wind measurements

The accuracy of Rayleigh Doppler lidar in the troposphere is significantly affected by aerosol interference, which distorts frequency response (FR) curves and causes systematic measurement errors. Simulations reveal that at a radial wind speed of 30 m/s, systematic errors reach 3.5 m/s and 6.7 m/s under atmospheric backscatter ratios of 2 and 6, respectively. To address these issues, this study introduces a Rayleigh Doppler lidar system integrated with a metastable barium atomic filter (MBAF). By optimizing the barium cell temperature to exceed 735 K, the system effectively suppresses Mie scattering signals and achieves consistent FR curves across different backscatter ratios, thereby eliminating aerosol-induced errors. Simulation analyses, incorporating observational data from an aerosol lidar at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and ERA5 wind speed data, validate the effectiveness of this approach. Results indicate that while the MBAF slightly attenuates Rayleigh scattering and reduces the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), it achieves a maximum wind speed error of only 0.6 m/s under challenging tropospheric conditions. This highlights the MBAF's capability to mitigate aerosol-induced errors, ensuring highly accurate wind field measurements and offering a reliable solution for complex atmospheric environments.