Advanced Airborne DIAL System Capabilities for Ozone and Multiwavelength Aerosol Measurements

Abstract

The NASA Langley airborne DIAL system has been modified to give significantly increased measurement capability for conducting atmospheric science investigations. The major modification to the DIAL system was incorporating the capability to make ozone and aerosol measurements above and below the aircraft simultaneously. This was accomplished by a total redesign of the transmitting and receiving sections of the DIAL system to accommodate eight lidar returns simultaneously. Additional modifications were also made to remotely control transmitted laser beam properties and direction; to incorporate a new filtering system for high UV throughput and complete cutoff; and to increase real-time data availability for real-time mission decisions.