differential absorption lidar
Also found in: Acronyms.
differential absorption lidar
[‚dif·ə′ren·chəl əb′sȯrp·shən ′lī‚där] (engineering)
A technique for the remote sensing of atmospheric gases, in which lasers transmit pulses of radiation into the atmosphere at two wavelengths, one of which is absorbed by the gas to be measured and one is not, and the difference between the return signals from atmospheric backscattering on the absorbed and nonabsorbed wavelengths is used as a direct measure of the concentration of the absorbing species. Abbreviated DIAL.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.