REAL uses very short pulses of invisible, eye-safe, near-infrared electromagnetic radiation in much the same way as weather radars use pulses of microwave radiation. The wavelength of near-infrared radiation, approximately 10,000 times shorter than microwaves, makes the lidar sensitive to suspended particulate matter (aerosol particles: dust, smoke, pollen, and haze particles).

Shane D. Mayor, PhD in atmospheric and oceanic sciences, has brought the Raman-shifted Eye-safe Aerosol Lidar (REAL) from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, to a site at the University Farm. Mayor is a research professor in the departments of Geosciences and Physics.

Just as radars can tell meteorologists where it is raining and snowing, the lidar can be used to locate clouds of particulate matter. In fact, because the lower atmosphere is usually rich with aerosol from both natural and man-made sources, the lidar almost always detects signal from "background aerosol". By sensing variations and movement in the background aerosol, the REAL is capable of revealing atmospheric circulations and phenemona that are difficult to observe using traditional methods. The key strength of REAL is the power of the images and animations to show spatial structure and evolution of "clear" atmospheric flow.

Note - 2009: Mayor received a three-year, $554,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Physical and Dynamic Meteorology Program to extract wind information from the images the REAL produces.

Source: http://phys.csuchico.edu/lidar/