This work was carried out in Space Science and Engineering Center of University of Wisconsin (Madison, USA) during years 1991-1994. I would like to thank Dr. Ed Eloranta for serving as my supervisor. Ed's enthusiasm, knowledge, Finnish "sisu", and aim at perfection and honest science will never stop amazing me. Ed's support, criticism, and suggestions during this work are greatly appreciated.
Special thanks go to Dan Forrest for his work on the software development. With his magical touch to the programming Dan helped me on the controlling of the HSRL and his wonderful RTI-displays made possible the real time visualization of the lidar data. Also thanks go to Jim Hedrick for his work on the mechanics and Jim Rose for his work on the electronics.
I would also like to thank Prof. Jyrki Kauppinen (University of Turku, Finland) and Dr. Erkki Kyrölä (Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland) for their comments on the manuscript. Thanks to Kari Hassinen (University of Joensuu, Finland) for technical help on printing this thesis.
Very special thanks go to my husband Antti for his support during these years. During last years we have shared ideas and sleepless nights while working on our theses. I also wish to thank my parents for all the support and showing me the value of hard work.
The support for my work was provided by the University of Joensuu, Finland. The HSRL was supported by the Naval Research Laboratory, U.S. Department of Navy, under grant N00014-93-1-G013, by National Aeronautics and Space Admin., under grant NAG-1-882, and by Department of Energy, under grant DE-FG02-90ER61058.
Madison, August 1, 1994
Päivi Piironen