For the first time in South Africa laser scientists at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) were able to operate three LiDAR measurement simultaneously in the same location to collect atmospheric backscatter data in Westville, Durban.

This historic event took place at the LiDAR measurement campaign at the School of Chemistry and Physics (SCP) at University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (UKZN) Westville Campus.

The week long campaign was led by Prof Sivakumar Venkataraman, a senior lecturer at UKZN's SCP and academic leader of National Astrophysics and Space Science Program (NASSP). The experiments were aimed at operating three LiDAR systems simultaneously and examining their performance. "The three systems were calibrated for the lower atmosphere covering altitudes up to 30km. The data which was collected over the five days will now be analysed. Initial results show that all three LiDARs are in agreement in terms of their detection of atmospheric features and locations" said Prof Venkataraman.

Henk van Wyk, Senior Laser Technician and Ameeth Sharma, Senior Electronic Engineer at the CSIR were part of this achievement and both of them were involved with the development of the CSIR Mobile LiDAR, as well as the recent upgrade and maintenance of the UKZN fixed LiDAR system. The fixed LiDAR was donated to UKZN's SCP by the Université de la Re'union (France) through a memorandum of understanding. "As an institution that provides knowledge and expertise through research and development of laser based technologies in South Africa, it is important that the CSIR continues to foster and support industry partners and key stakeholders, such as local higher education institutions," explained Sharma.

UKZN's fixed LiDAR conducts daily observations for the monitoring of atmospheric pollution levels and cloud structure over Durban, while the portable LiDAR is a commercial system that has scanning capabilities, and is used for studying pollution dispersion and bio-mass burning evolutions in the lower atmosphere (e.g. farmers' burning of agricultural land for re-cultivation)

"It has been a pleasure supporting Prof Venkatamaran and we hope that the CSIR-mobile LiDAR can further be used to facilitate LiDAR research and provide training platforms for future atmospheric scientists in the country," added Sharma.

The CSIR mobile LiDAR is the only such system to be developed in the country. First results were obtained and presented at the 24th International Laser Radar Conference (ILRC) in Boulder, USA in 2008 and soon after it was published in the South African Journal of Science.

More recently, the system was used to collect data that was published this year in Advances in Metrology.