The instrumental development supposes the coordination of different trades in optics, mechanics, electronics, system, signal processing and a consequent logistics to put the instrument realized in operation on the ground (Fig. 1) .
The objective of instrumental lidar development at LMD is twofold:
1) test new ideas or technologies (laser, detector, etc.) in a real environment
2) to provide new means of characterizing the atmosphere which most often fill a gap in observations.
Figure 1 Different facets of lidar instrumentation at LMD.
(a) Optics: laser source, detector, lidar (b) Design, simulation, performance study, particularly for space (c) Mechanics: integration, scanner development for 3D atmospheric observation (d) FPGA electronics: synchronization, servo-control , acquisition (e) Real-time signal processing and visualization (f) COWI mobile lidar station and associated in situ instrumentation