Range Atmospheric visibility Monitoring (RAVM)

To fully characterize the here must be To fully characterize the e, the atmosphere must be characterized for extinction factors leading to reduced contrast, as well as turbulence effects which reduce the image resolution of targets. The proposed system is a Rayleigh/Mie lidar (laser radar) system which measures molecular and aerosol backscattering to map out the range-resolved atmospheric extinction coefficient. The visual range and maximum image resolution are then calculated from these results. The system employes a narrow line width, frequency agile Cr:LiSAF/Raman-shifted laser transmitter capable of multiwavelength operations at all typical sensor wavelength (for example, visible, 850nm, 1.6um, and the 2-5um range). The detection system will use a novelfiltering scheme for separating the Rayleigh and Mie return signals. Future addons will make the lidar fully scanning to deliver 2-D or 3-D visibility information throughout the entire airspace.