Wind-Field and Wind-Shear Detection Using Random-Modulated, Continuous-Wave Lidar and Edge Techniques

The proposed instrument combines random modulated continuous wave lidar and edge detection Doppler lidar. This combination has the potential for producing a wind and wind shear profiling lidar which is optically simple enough to be routinely used in the field. The lidar uses the recently developed high power master-oscillator power-amplifier diode laser which can function for several thousand hours without failure. Doppler frequency shifts are measured using the incoherent edge technique which is tolerant of laser frequency drift and laser speckle. These problems plague coherent Doppler lidar. OPHIR corporation has recently demonstrated reliable operation of an airborne RM-CW lidar and is currently developing an airborne edge detection Doppler lidar. Combining these two techniques has the potential for providing a relatively simple solution to the long standing problem of continuous monitoring for clear air turbulence. The proposed Phase I effort will further investigate the lidar sensitivity and detection range. Instrumentation for processing lidar data and maintaining alignment through computer control using sensor feedback. This unique lidar combination is explicitly requested in the SBIR solicitation subtopic for wind field and wind shear measurement.