Patent ID: 7209222

Claim:
A laser radar apparatus comprising: an oscillator that generates a modulating signal; a modulator that intensity-modulates a light signal using the modulating signal generated by said oscillator; a transmitter that transmits the light signal intensity-modulated by said modulator into an atmosphere; a receiver that receives a light signal from the atmosphere when the transmitter transmits the light signal into the atmosphere; a photoelectric converter that converts an intensity-modulated component contained in the light signal received by said receiver into an electric signal; a frequency converter that converts a frequency of the electric signal outputted from said photoelectric converter into a baseband frequency using the modulating signal generated by said oscillator; and a detector that carries out a coherent integral of the electric signal whose frequency has been converted by said frequency converter so as to detect a quality of scatterers which exist in the atmosphere from a result of the coherent integral.