Status and Development of Lidar applications in China's Meteorological Observation

Atmospheric lidar has become a powerful tool for atmospheric detection due to its advantages of high spatiotemporal resolution, multiple parameters and high-precision detection. In this paper, the application status of lidar in China’s meteorological observation is introduced, and the prospects for the development of lidar applications are presented. For better observation of atmospheric clouds, aerosol, and water vapor parameters, the China Meteorological Administration(CMA) has laid out and constructed a Raman-Mie aerosol lidar network with 49 stations from 2021 to 2024 and has solved several key technical problems such as data quality control, parameter inversion, and quantitative calibration. In order to achieve high-precision observations with a time resolution at the minute level, more than 10 standard specifications have been formulated for calibration, observation, and data transmission. The lidars for network applications normally use a three-wavelength laser covering 355 nm, 532 nm, and 1064 nm,and they can achieve a detection distance of more than 10 km, an accuracy of aerosol backscattering coefficient of less than 20%（0.5-2 km）and 40%（2-5 km）, and an accuracy of water vapor concentration of less than 1g/kg (0.5-3 km).In the field of wind observation, the CMA has laid out and constructed a wind lidar network with 372 stations by 2024. The lidars use the coherent detection with a laser wavelenth of 1550nm, and they can achieve a maximum detection distance of more than 3km, a horizontal wind speed error less than 0.8m/s, and a horizontal wind direction error less than 8°.The layout and application of aerosol lidar network and wind lidar network have greatly improved China's meteorological observation capability and application levels in aerosol and wind fields. In recent years, the CMA has actively cooperated with various universities and scientific research institutes to carry out key technological studies in atmospheric temperature and humidity lidar, high spectral resolution lidar, middle and upper atmosphere lidar, and airborne/spaceborne lidar. Through planning and constructing meteorological business application platforms in the future, the comprehensive three-dimensional observation of multiple parameters such as temperature, humidity, wind and aerosols will be developed to improve China's meteorological observation ability and provide strong support for research in meteorological services, atmospheric science and climate change.