Progress in Solid-State Lasers for Spaceborne Lidars

Abstract

As part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Space Station program, a lidar facility is being planned to conduct a series of scientific experiments from a polar orbiting platform. The thrust of these experiments is to improve our understanding of atmospheric chemistry and dynamics, altimetry, and meteorology. A number of scientific experiments were recently developed by a panel of scientists and lidar technologists and included both atmospheric backscatter (Lidar) and Differential Absorption and Lidar (DIAL) experiments. The major investigations to be conducted include measurements of the vertical profiles of atmospheric aerosols, the height of the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL), the distribution of cirrus clouds, vertical profiles of water vapor in the lower and upper atmosphere, vertical profiles of ozone, and measurements of the vertical profiles of pressure and temperature. These experiments were developed by the Lidar Atmospheric Sounder and Altimetry (LASA) panel, and have been summarized in a NASA document.