Simulation of a spaceborne continuous-wave sodium lidar for the global mesopause region temperature/wind measurements

We present the design of a continuous-wave (CW) sodium lidar system for spaceborne detection. Unlike conventional all-solid-state pulse sodium lidar systems that employ dual Nd: YAG lasers for sum-frequency generation, the proposed CW system adopts a compact laser architecture based on established ground-based implementations. The system transmits continuous lasers modulated by a precisely controlled pseudo-random M-sequence, enabling distance-resolved measurements from space. This study presents the theoretical design of the satellite orbit, the system configuration, and the measurement strategy along with simulations of return signals and an analysis of retrieval errors in temperature, zonal wind, and meridional wind in the mesopause region. Additionally, we assess the impact of mechanical alignment errors and environmental variability on measurement accuracy. Results demonstrate the feasibility of deploying a CW sodium lidar system for measuring global mesopause temperatures and winds from space.