Aerosol plume detection algorithm based on image segmentation of scanning atmospheric lidar data

The images in this case consist of lidar data in a polar coordinate system. Each full lidar scan is taken as a fixed image in time, and sequences of such scans are considered functions of time.

The data are analyzed in both the original backscatter polar coordinate system and a lagged coordinate system. The lagged coordinate system is a scatterplot of two datasets, such as subregions taken from the same lidar scan (spatial delay), or two sequential scans in time (time delay). The lagged coordinate system processing allows for finding and classifying clusters of data.