lidar

An instrument or technique based on laser technology used in Meteorology. The word is the acronym for Laser Imaging Detection And Ranging (LIDAR). By emitting pulses of a laser beam, the lidar device is able to determine the distance to a given object or surface, thanks to the measurement of the time elapsed between the emission of one of those pulses and the detection of the reflected signal. Among the meteorological applications of these instruments are, for example, the measurement of cloud ceiling height at airports (ceilometer), the characterization of aerosols in atmospheric columns, and upper-air wind measurements.