Erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA)-assisted laser heterodyne radiometer (LHR) working in the shot-noise dominated regime

A near-infrared (NIR) laser heterodyne radiometer (LHR) using a 1603 nm distributed feedback (DFB) laser, associated with an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), used as a local oscillator (LO) was developed. The EDFA was customized for automatic power control to amplify and stabilize the LO DFB laser power, which allowed to reduce baseline fluctuation and thus make the processed atmospheric transmission spectrum with higher precision. The operation of the EDFA-assisted LHR with a shot-noise-dominated performance was analyzed and experimentally achieved by optimizing the LO power. The performance of the developed LHR was evaluated and verified by measuring an atmospheric CO2 absorption spectrum, and the atmospheric CO2 column abundances were then retrieved based on the optimal estimation method (OEM). The results were in good agreement with the Greenhouse Gas Observation Satellite (GOSAT) data. The EDFA-assisted LHR firstly reported in this Letter has a potential to further improve the measurement precision of atmospheric greenhouse gases using ground-based LHR remote sensing.