Differential Characterization of Atmospheric Turbulence System (DCATS)

ABSTRACT: Michigan Aerospace Corporation (MAC) and Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) propose to design an airborne system for characterizing long range profiles of the state of optical turbulence in the atmosphere. This system will exploit GTRI"s differential image motion (DIM) lidar for measuring profiles of the refractive index structure characteristic as well as scintillation analysis to perform angle of arrival anemometry to determine the transverse components of velocity. This will further enable MAC to estimate the temporal anisoplanatism. MAC will additionally study the impact of adding a Fabry Perot Interferometer to improve the atmospheric turbulence estimates. BENEFIT: The combination of Differential Image Motion with additional atmospheric measurements addresses a need in the evaluation of EO sensor technologies. Both ground-based and airborne versions of the system will provide benefits to test and measurement communities that must characterize atmospheric optical turbulence. In addition, the ability to measure cross-range velocity can be helpful to other applications, such as clear air turbulence detection.