PULSED LASER RANGING TECHNIQUES FOR ICE

AN EXPLORATORY INVESTIGATION OF THE PROPAGATION CHARACTERISTICS OF LASER LIGHT IN SIMULATED SEA ICE IS PROPOSED. TRANSMISSION AND REFLECTION BEHAVIOR WILL BE MEASURED SO THAT THE POTENTIAL OF A NEW CLASS OF ICE THICKNESS AND PROFILING DIAGNOSTICS CAN BE ASSESSED. DUE TO SEA ICE INHOMOGENEITIES, AN EXPERIMENTALLY ORIENTED PROGRAM USING A POWERFUL PULSED ND:YAG LASER IS PROPOSED. USING NANOSECOND PULSES, A VARIETY OF LASER RANGING INSTRUMENTS BASED ON TIME-OF-FLIGHTENHANCED BY TRIANGULATION TECHNIQUES COULD BE DEVELOPED. EXPERIMENTS WITH SIMULATED SEA ICE PROBED BY 50 MW PULSES OF 6 NANOSECOND DURATION AT A WAVELENGTH IN THE BLUE-GREEN TRANSMISSION BAND ARE OUTLINED.THE OPTICAL DATA WILL BE USED TO ASSESS POTENTIAL OPERATIONAL LIMITS FOR LASER BASED RANGING INSTRUMENTATION. SATISFACTORY OPTICAL PERFORMANCE WOULD LEAD TO IN-SITU MEASUREMENTS OF ARCTIC SEA ICE.