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LABORATORIO DE FISICA DE LA ATMOSFERA | |
Universidad Mayor de San Andrés - La Paz Bolivia |
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LABORATORIO DE FISICA DE LA ATMOSFERA | |
Universidad Mayor de San Andrés - La Paz Bolivia |
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News
New laboratory equipment
The "LIPAZ" Lidar Project
Francesco Zaratti1, Ricardo Forno1, Flavio Ghezzi 1, Eduardo R. Palenque1, Errico Armandillo 2, Giorgio Fiocco 3, Juan Carlos Antuña 4,5, Alan Robock 4, Pablo O. Canziani6, Barclay Clemesha7
1Laboratorio de Física de la Atmósfera, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Bolivia
2European Space Agency, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
3Universita di Roma, Roma, Italia
4Department of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA
5Estación Lidar Camagüey, Instituto de Meteorología, Cuba
6Departamento de Ciencias de la Atmósfera, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
7Upper Atmosphere Research Group, FISAT, INPE, Brazil
Introduction and Background
Supported by the Inter-American Institute for Climate Change Research (IAI), a workshop on "Lidar Measurements in Latin-America" was held on 6-8 March, 2001 in Camagüey, Cuba. In this meeting a continental lidar network was proposed "ALiNe" (American Lidar Network), (Antuna et al.), to include a number of lidar stations across the central and southern American continent. La Paz, in Bolivia, was identified as a potential site of great interest for a lidar station. As a follow-on to this meeting, various initiatives have been taken to implement such a plan. As part of these initiatives, with the support of the European Space Agency, an Alexandrite backscattering lidar has been developed for use in La Paz, LIPAZ (LIdar at La PAZ). LIPAZ lidar, has been built by Quanta System labs in Milano, Italy, by refurbishing an experimental prototype of an elastic backscattering lidar of the European Space Agency (1985) . LiPaz is presently in Rome, under the responsibility of the lidar group of Prof. Fiocco where it is undergoing testing, calibration and further software enhancement, before shipment, set-up and operation in La Paz.
The LIPAZ lidar experiment facility is intended to be developed and operational in several phases. The first phase will entail single-wavelength operation @ 750 nm for atmospheric backscatter profiling. Subsequent phases foresee the implementation and operation of multiple wavelengths.
The main specifications of the LIPAZ lidar are:
a) Transmitter
Type: Alexandrite laser, l » 750 nm (tuneable)
Operating regime: Q-switched
divergence: approx. 1 mrad (full angle);
pulse time: 260 ns FWHM;
pulse energy: nominal 100 mJ @ 75 % Vmax;
line width: 6 nm, FWHM.
Beam diameter: 5 mm at the laser aperturePRF 4 Hz, nominal
Operation transportable
Weight laser head= 15Kg, power supply= 45 Kg
b) Receiver (Telescope specifications)
c) Acquisition control board
Counter/timers 2 (20 MHz, 24-bit resolution)
Why La Paz?
LIPAZ is part of the Laboratorio de Física de la Atmósfera (Atmospheric Physics Laboratory) which operates under the Instituto de Investigaciones Físicas (Physical Research Institute), part of the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés. The university is the largest in the country, and is part of the National State University system.
La Paz has many interesting features for the study of atmospheric physics.
Note that despite the high population density of La Paz, pollution levels are very low.
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