Unified sensor for atmospheric turbulence and refractivity characterization

In this effort, tOSC and the University of New Mexico COSMIAC (Configurable Space Microsystems Innovation Applications Center) will combine to generate a Target-in-the-Loop (TIL) system concept that can simultaneously measure the strength of atmospheric turbulence and scintillation, as well as the refractivity occurring at the measurement time. For this system concept, we will leverage existing tOSC hardware that characterizes atmospheric turbulence passively, but we will greatly expand the capability to use the desired active approach and to include refractivity measurements using multiple wavelengths. In order to keep costs manageable, we expect to use low-earth orbit (LEO) retro-reflector equipped satellites so that we can get adequate signal to noise ratio (SNR) with a relatively inexpensive laser. The result should be a highly-portable, highly-capable atmospheric measurement system that can be used in concert with other USAF systems to produce the atmospheric characterization simultaneously with observations of targets of interest.