Performance evaluation of spaceborne oceanographic lidar for optical properties detection in global ocean

^(a) College of Marine Technology, Faculty of Information Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, China
^(b) Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, 266237, China
^(c) Institute for Advanced Ocean Study, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, China
^(d) Key Laboratory of Space Laser Communication and Detection Technology, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Published online: 9 April 2026

Abstract

Detection of vertical distribution of optical properties in global ocean is of high priority to the study of marine environment and carbon cycle. Lidar has the advantage of measuring profiles of optical properties in the water. In this paper, in order to evaluate and analyze the detection performance of lidar for optical properties in global ocean, a simulator was developed to generate lidar return signal and estimate the detection depth of spaceborne oceanographic lidar with given specifications operating in blue-green spectral region. The global detection capability of spaceborne lidar with various power aperture products and typical operating wavelengths is estimated. The results show the distribution of detection depth depends on both water optical properties and operating wavelength. With the same power aperture product, in the cleanest open ocean, the penetration depth of lidar with a wavelength of 443 nm is the deepest. In most open ocean, the lidar with a wavelength of 486 nm has the maximum propagation ability. The lidar with a wavelength of 532 nm is more suitable for detection in coastal water.