Portable High Resolution Doppler Lidar

The Phase I effort will define an optimized, portable, rugged, incoherent, eye-safe Doppler lidar system for use in detecting wind velocity above helicopters at ranges greater than 5 km. Initial system design and component specifications will be completedin this effort.Lite Cycles, Inc. intends to commercialize this technology within both the DoD and the private sector. There are three primary private sector markets that have applications for this technology: (1) Wind shear detection at high altitudes forClear Air Turbulence (CAT) for commercial airlines; (2) Wake vortex detection lidar systems on major airport runways to space incoming landings safely; and (3) Wind sensing for weather prediction. The Clear Air Turbulence requirement is a result ofpassenger and crew injuries and death on commercial flights when encountering CAT during a flight. The CAT risk is higher when flying over certain mountain ranges. Airlines are interested in an affordable solution to early warning instruments that willallow either flight course changes or a seat belt buckle advisory for passengers. Coherent lidar systems have limited use at 30,000 ft altitude and above because they depend on aerosol scattering for the return signal. Direct detection can use the returnfrom molecular scattering, so it is not dependent on the availability of aerosols to provide the return. Incoherent Doppler lidar is less complex than coherent systems and will be more robust, compact, and less expensive. CAT instruments couldpotentially be installed on most commercial aircraft worldwide. This is a large number of systems and constitutes a large enough market to justify development of a system both for incorporation into new aircraft and for retrofitting existing aircraft.The wake vortex detection instrument is used to determine the wake vortex trailing large aircraft during landings at airports. Current airport regulations for time between aircraft landings are based on experience. An instrument to measure and reportwake vortex data for each aircraft would allow far safer and considerably higher landing rates at busy airports. The market is worldwide, and airports with high traffic rates would be targeted for installation of these systems. Larger airports mayrequire several systems to cover multiple runways.