{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,6]],"date-time":"2026-03-06T21:25:33Z","timestamp":1772832333490,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,12]],"date-time":"2022-04-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1649721600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Key Special Project for Introduced Talents Team of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou)","award":["GML2019ZD0602"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["GML2019ZD0602"]}]},{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation","award":["41901305; 61991453"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41901305; 61991453"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004731","name":"Zhejiang Natural Science Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["LQ19D060003"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["LQ19D060003"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004731","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In recent years, oceanic lidar has seen a wide range of oceanic applications, such as optical profiling and detecting bathymetry. Furthermore, spaceborne lidars, CALIOP and ICESat-2, designed for atmospheric and ice science applications, have been used for ocean backscattering retrievals, but, until now, there has been no spaceborne lidar specifically designed for ocean detection. There is a demand for an effective lidar simulator to study the detection potential capability of spaceborne oceanic lidar. In this study, an open-source spaceborne oceanic lidar simulator named SOLS was developed, which is available freely. Moreover, the maximum detectable depth and corresponding optimal wavelength for spaceborne lidar were analyzed at a global scale by using SOLS. The factors controlling detection limits of a spaceborne ocean profiling lidar in different cases were discussed. Then, the maximum detectable depths with different relative measurement errors and the influence of solar background radiance were estimated. Subsequently, the effects of laser and detector parameters on maximum detectable depths were studied. The relationship between the lidar detectable depth and the ocean mixed layer depth was also discussed. Preliminary results show that the maximum detectable depth could reach deeper than 120 m in the oligotrophic sea at low latitudes. We found that 490 nm is the optimal wavelength for most of the open seawater. For coastal water, 532 nm is a more suitable choice considering both the technical maturity and geophysical parameters. If possible, a lidar equipped with 440 nm could achieve the greatest depth in oligotrophic seawater in subtropical gyres north and south of the equator. The upper mixed layer vertical structure in most of the global open ocean is within the lidar maximum detectable depth. These results show that SOLS can help the design of future spaceborne oceanic lidar systems a lot.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs14081849","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,12]],"date-time":"2022-04-12T22:48:45Z","timestamp":1649803725000},"page":"1849","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["SOLS: An Open-Source Spaceborne Oceanic Lidar Simulator"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9818-5346","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhenhua","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Space Active Opto-Electronics Technology, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200083, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics, Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, 36 Bochubeilu, Hangzhou 310012, China"},{"name":"School of Electronic, Electrical and Communication Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0635-9220","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Peng","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics, Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, 36 Bochubeilu, Hangzhou 310012, China"},{"name":"Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), No.1119, Haibin Rd., Nansha District, Guangzhou 511458, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0066-1808","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhihua","family":"Mao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Space Active Opto-Electronics Technology, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200083, China"},{"name":"School of Electronic, Electrical and Communication Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"19","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev.marine.010908.163650","article-title":"A Decade of Satellite Ocean Color Observations","volume":"1","author":"McClain","year":"2009","journal-title":"Annu. 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