Application of lidars to study the middle and upper atmosphere

In this paper, we propose a set of parameters that characterise qualitatively parameters of lidars working in photon-counting mode of echo signal detection. Based on the proposed parameters, we estimate requirements to elements and units of lidars for laser sounding of the middle and upper atmosphere in the daytime. We analyse application of the following interaction phenomena between laser emission and the atmospheric environment: elastic, combinational and resonance scattering, differential absorption.