The first complete atmospheric lidar unit developed within EULIAA, operating in the infrared, has been fully assembled, commissioned and successfully tested at the Leibniz Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP).
All subsystems – including the diode‑pumped Alexandrite IR laser, control software and safety systems – were integrated into the mobile housing, and the system was moved outside to the testing range. Initial atmospheric measurements demonstrated:
- operation with three tilted fields of view plus an additional depolarisation channel,
- high‑quality signals from aerosols (Mie scattering) up to about 30 km and from air molecules (Rayleigh scattering) up to about 50 km, and
- signatures from metal layers at around 85–95 km altitude.
These first results confirm that the IR lidar unit meets its design goals and is ready for long‑term testing and subsequent deployment to remote campaign sites within the EULIAA network.
