A model of remote detection of molecular air pollutants is devised based on the lidar equation. The various kinds of interaction of radiation with matter, viz. absorption, induced fluorescence, and Raman scattering, are taken into account; detection of either scattered or reflected signal is considered. The reflection is assumed to be either axial, using a retroreflector, or omnidirectional from a field target. Based on this model, an algorithm was set up for simulation of the different variants of the experiment, making allowance for a generally variable concentration of the compound along the optical pathway of the light beam. The basic atmospheric processes, viz. radiation absorption by the backround, heat emission, turbulence, and the effect of atmospheric aerosols, are treated, and the last of them is found to play the major role. Aerosols are looked upon as a source of the Mie scattering and they are described by distribution equations with respect to the particle size and the complex refractive index. The variable concentration of the aerosol along the optical pathway and the simultaneous effect of a higher numberof aerosol types are included.
