The Lidar System MULIS

MULIS I

The lidar was built in 1993/94 by Sensorlab, Munich; it was funded in the frame of the Bavarian Climate Research Programme (BayFORKLIM). This system (MULIS I) was in operation over about one decade and participated in lidar networks (e.g. EARLINET) and several field campaigns.

Specifications MULIS I (valid approximately until 2005)

Laser Nd-YAG (Continuum Surelite)
Pulse-Energy 175 mJ @ 1064 nm
50 mJ @ 532 nm
175 mJ @ 355 nm
Rep. Rate 10 Hz
Pulse Duration 6 ns
Beam Divergence 0.6 mrad
Telescope Cassegrainian, 30 cm diameter
Field of View 1.5 – 4 mrad
Detectors Pin-Diode @ 1064 nm
PMT @ 532 nm
PMT @ 355 nm
A/D Conversion 12 Bit, 40 MHz
Range Resolution 3.75 m
Overlap 200 m – 250 m @ 4 mrad-FOV
Scanning Elevation and Azimuth
Data Storage variable number of shots averaged, variance, min/max
Size 1.3 m * 1.3 m * 1.3 m
Housing Trailer or Institute Platform
Power Consumption 1.5 kW (5 kW incl. peripherals)

The lidar in its original configuration (photograph from W. Carnuth, 1995) The lidar in its original configuration (photograph from W. Carnuth, 1995)

MULIS II

A major upgrade was succeeded in early 2006. Volker Freudenthaler completely redesigned the old system by adding two Raman channels (387 nm and 607 nm) and splitting the 532 nm channel into two channels to determine the state of the polarization of the backscattered radiation. All related work was performed by our group (engineering by Meinhard Seefeldner, mechanical implementation by Anton Lex) at the institute.

The specifications of the new system can be found in the EARLINET-„Handbook of Instruments“.