Airborne Doppler lidars using eye-safe solid-state laser technology for commercial and defense applications

Summary form only given. One of the exciting applications of IR Doppler radar is for the on-board measurement of atmospheric wind speeds and turbulence for use on commercial aircraft. An airborne pulsed coherent solid-state laser radar can potentially meet the needs of; detection of wind shear on landing approach; the measurement of enroute turbulence at cruise altitudes; and the measurement of winds above and below flight path for fuel savings, especially on international flights. As a step in this direction, a diode-pumped pulsed infrared Doppler lidar system was test flown on a NASA 737. The measurement of winds and turbulence in front of the aircraft was demonstrated. Performance analysis has also been conducted on the detection of aircraft vortices from an aircraft platform.