Remote Sensing of Seawater Temperature and Salinity Profiles by the Brillouin Lidar Based on a Fizeau Interferometer and Multichannel Photomultiplier Tube

Abstract

Brillouin spectroscopy is a powerful tool to measure the water temperature and salinity profiles of seawater. Considering the insufficiency of the current spectral measurement methods in real-time, spectral integrity, continuity, and stability, we developed a new lidar system for spectrum measurement on an airborne platform that is based on a Fizeau interferometer and multichannel photomultiplier tube. In this approach, the lidar system uses time-of-flight information to measure the depth and relies on Brillouin spectroscopy as the temperature and salinity indicator. In this study, the system parameters were first optimized and analyzed. Based on the analysis results, the performance of the system in terms of detection depth and accuracy was evaluated. The results showed that this method has strong anti-interference ability, and under a temperature measurement accuracy of 0.5 °C and a salinity measurement accuracy of 1‰, the effective detection depth exceeds 40.51 m. Therefore, the proposed method performs well and will be a good choice for achieving Brillouin lidar application in seawater remote sensing.