Demonstration of a compact and universal Doppler Lidar based on a novel diode pumped alexandrite ring laser

First atmospheric measurements with a diode pumped alexandrite ring laser in a ground-based general-purpose Doppler lidar demonstrates high-resolution spectral measurements with minimum hardware requirements. Two decades of Doppler measurements by flash lamped pumped alexandrite ring laser within the worldwide only existing mobile Doppler resonance lidar have shown the capability of such scanning lidar to measure any spectrum from the troposphere to the thermosphere without a frequency reference at the wavelength of desire. An improved second-generation system with a size of 1 m3, including a 50 cm telescope, is currently under development for ground-based automatic observations at harsh environments, such as Antarctica. Minimizing the size, complexity, maintenance time and improving the optical setup pave the way of this technology for future space missions. As an example for a possible future space mission, we discuss a mesospheric potassium resonance Doppler lidar by extrapolating the signal from ground-based measurements.