A high-performance airborne water vapor differential absorption lidar has been developed during the past years. This system uses a four-wavelength/three-absorption line measurement scheme in the 935 nm H 2 O absorption band to cover the whole troposphere and lower stratosphere simultaneously. Additional high spectral resolution aerosol and depolarization channels allow precise aerosol characterization. This system is intended to demonstrate a future space-borne instrument. For the first time, it realizes an output power of up to 12 W at a high wall-plug efficiency using diode-pumped solid-state lasers and nonlinear conversion techniques. Special attention was given to a rugged optical layout. This paper describes the system layout and technical realization. Key performance parameters are given for the different subsystems.

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