Time characteristics of lidar signals during sensing through roughed sea surface

We have studied the influence of a roughed sea surface and the dispersion of photons over pathlengths on the time characteristics of a pulsed oceanologic airborne lidar. We have derived equations describing the first two temporal moments of a return signal for two types of lidar (a lidar with an isotropic receiver directional pattern and a lidar with an extremely narrow receiver pattern). It is shown that the delay of the return signal and its effective width depend substantially on both the characteristics of the lidar itself and on the parameters of the sea-surface roughness and inherent optical properties.