The NCAR Airborne Infrared Lidar System: Status and Applications

Abstract

The National Center for Atmospheric Research Airborne Infrared Lidar System is being developed for Doppler wind measurements using heterodyne detection. Its design is based on a pulsed CO2 laser transmitter and a single continuous-wave CO2 laser as local oscillator and injection seed for the pulsed laser. Research during the system development has shown the workability of the two-laser concept, the need for optical isolation between the lasers, and advantages of averaging complex autocorrelation functions rather than velocity estimates. The authors describe the system and show calculated performance for wind measurements.