This paper describes experimental and theoretical studies on a near-infrared solid state heterodyne lidar. In the short wavelength region (1-2 μm), atmospheric turbulence is a dominant factor to limit the performance of lidar systems. We introduce an experimental study on the reduced telescope aperture size due to atmospheric turbulence and a study using computer simulation which took into account target speckles, atmospheric turbulence, and the use of heterodyne array.