Development of spaceborne LIDAR; ELISE (Experimental Lidar In Space Equipment)

The National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) started a study on spaceborne lidar in 1990, and has developed a ground-based and an airborne lidar. Now they are to embark on the ELISE (Experimental Lidar In Space Equipment) which is the two-wavelength spaceborne backscatter lidar which will be loaded onto Mission Demonstration test Satellite-2 (MDS-2) planned to be flown to a sun-synchronous orbit (altitude:550km) in early 2002. The main purposes of ELISE are the demonstration of key technologies and experimental observation. Key technologies include a lightweight laser diode (LD)-pumped high power laser and a high efficiency detector (silicon avalanche photodiode (Si-APD)), which are required for future spaceborne lidars. The main scientific objectives are to observe the global distributions of a high altitude cloud (especially cirrus), aerosols and to obtain information on the structure of multi-layered clouds. ELISE is expected to observe and get the data on these objectives for one year. These observation data will reveal the scientific value and availability of spaceborne lidar and be used for the design of future spaceborne lidars.