This paper discusses an innovative, compact and eyesafe coherent lidar system developed for wind and wake vortex sensing applications. With an innovative all-fiber and modular transceiver architecture, the wind lidar system has reduced size, weight and power requirements, and provides enhanced performance along with operational elegance. This all-fiber architecture is developed around fiber seed laser coupled to uniquely configured fiber amplifier modules. The innovative features of this lidar system, besides its all fiber architecture, include pulsewidth agility and user programmable 3D hemispherical scanner unit. Operating at a wavelength of 1.5457 microns and with a PRF of up to 20 KHz, the lidar transmitter system is designed as a Class 1 system with dimensions of 30"(W) x 46"(L) x 60"(H). With an operational range exceeding 10 km, the wind lidar is configured to measure wind velocities of greater than 120 m/s with an accuracy of +/-0.2 m/s and allow range resolution of less than 15 m. The dynamical configuration capability of transmitted pulsewidths from 50 ns to 400 ns allows high resolution wake vortex measurements. The scanner uses innovative liquid metal slip ring and is built using 3D printer technology with light weight nylon. As such, it provides continuous 360 degree azimuth and 180 degree elevation scan angles with an incremental motion of 0.001 degree. The lidar system is air cooled and requires 110 V for its operation. This compact and modular lidar system is anticipated to provide mobility, reliability, and ease of field deployment for wind and wake vortex measurements. Currently, this wind lidar is undergoing validation tests under various atmospheric conditions. Preliminary results of these field measurements of wind characteristics that were recently carried out in Colorado are discussed.
The Coherent Launch Site Atmospheric Wind Sounder (CLAWS) is a test and demonstration program to investigate the feasibility of using a solid-state coherent lidar to obtain wind data from the surface to 20 km or more altitude in real time for launch site vehicle guidance and control (G&C) applications.1 This paper discusses the design and tests of a 1-J coherent lidar.
Every airborne operation is affected by the winds. This is particularly true for operations where objects are released from an aircraft to fall to the ground without controls (e.g. cargo parachute deliveries and unguided bomb releases). Aircraft crews have used a variety of techniques (e.g. winds from closest weather station, balloon launch winds, winds at altitude, etc.) in an attempt to determine the intervening winds during such missions so that release points could be adjusted to compensate for these winds. These efforts have had limited success. A desired alternative to these approaches would be to have a sensor on board the aircraft that could directly measure the wind fields in real-time. This project, which is the subject of this paper, is designed to demonstrate exactly that type of airborne sensor using an eye-safe laser radar. We defined this system as an “interim operational capability” (IOC), because the system was not designed nor engineered for this particular application. Rather, we assembled a system using available sub-systems that could be installed on a particular type of aircraft in a short timeframe and thereby provide a wind measuring capability for airdrop missions should the need arise.
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