Agile-Pulse Dual-Mode High-Power Eyesafe Doppler Lidar

"The proposed Phase II program develops a compact, eyesafe, variable-resolution 1.6 mm coherent laser radar sensor, for masked helicopter detection, based upon a novel, high power, high efficiency Er:YAG laser transmitter. The variable resolution (pulsewidth) of this sensor provides flexibility between resolution and update time, which scales with the inverse of the cube of the pulse width. High-speed, wide-angle, detection utilizing a long pulse width and an increase in spectral width provides cues topotential target locations. High resolution positive ID is accomplished using a short pulse width. In the long-pulse (350 ns) mode, the scan rate will exceed 5 degrees/sec (e.g., 45 degrees in 9 sec) , while providing 5 m cross range resolution at 5 km.In the high-resolution mode (55 ns ~ 8 m) update rates less than 1.7 seconds per LOS are expected. In both modes, a velocity precision better than 20 cm/s at ranges in excess of 5 km is achieved. The sensor is designed to produce arbitrary pulse widths,between these two bounds, to facilitate custom signature detection. The base Phase II effort focuses on the development and demonstration of the novel brassboard sensor and refined clutter rejection algorithms. These two aspects of the proposed effortare the key technology advancements needed to solve the helicopter signature detection problem. Several optional tasks are included that add COTS components (scanner and signal processo