ELECTROMAGNETIC NEUROIMAGING OF THE AGING BRAIN

Not Available The objective of the proposal is to demonstrate the feasibility of a new LIDAR for remote sensing of optical turbulence and cirrus clouds aboard the Airborne Laser platform. The LIDAR employs common transmit/receive apertures, a pulse laser, and a range gated receiving system, and it has the following advantages. It is insensitive to aircraft vibrations, and it can operate over long distances in the strong scintillation regime. During the first phase, the following tasks will be accomplished: (1) develop conceptual design; (2) do performance analysis; (3) develop hardware and software for demonstration; (4) do field demonstration; (5) reduce and analyze the demo data; (6) write a scientific paper and final report. In addition to the Airborne Laser scenario, the sensor can be used for ground-based laser and space-object imaging applications. A small commercial LIDAR system could also be developed for sensing turbulence and thin clouds at astronomical sites. The project will be carried out by a team of researchers from Applied Technologies Inc, and Georgia Tech, who have broad experience in the developing and testing of optical sensors for measuring turbulence over very long distances, the development of LIDAR sensors and new technologies for astronomical adaptive optics.