Airdrop ballistic winds operationally capable lidar

Author

Carr, Jerry ; Root, J. ; Fetner, R. ; Salisbury, M. ; Richmond, R.

Author_Institution

Air Force Res. Lab. Sensors, Wright Res. & Dev. Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, USA

Volume

14

Issue

5

fYear

1999

fDate

5/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

31

Lastpage

36

Abstract

The Airdrop Ballistic Winds (ABW) team at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, conducted flight tests of its 2 μm laser radar (lidar). This system, called the Operationally Capable Lidar (OCL), was installed in a modified C-130 fuel pod. The OCL was designed to: (1) provide real-time, 3-D maps of wind fields between the aircraft and the ground; and (2) significantly improve airdrop accuracy from high altitudes. This paper briefly describes the OCL, the Precision Airdrop simulation (PADS) tool, and flight test activities, including the Precision Airdrop Integrated Demonstration.

Keywords

aerospace simulation; airborne radar; ballistics; military radar; optical radar; remote sensing by laser beam; wind; airdrop accuracy; airdrop ballistic winds; atmospheric backscatter; flight tests; high altitudes; inertial navigation unit; lidar wind profiling system; modified C-130 fuel pod; operationally capable lidar; precision airdrop integrated demonstration; precision airdrop simulation tool; real-time 3D maps; wind fields; Aerosols; Aircraft; Atmospheric measurements; Electrooptic devices; Force sensors; Laser radar; Optical scattering; Testing; Transceivers; Wind;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0885-8985

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/62.765778

Filename

765778