Wavelength Drift Corrector for Wind Lidar Receivers, Phase II

We propose to develop and demonstrate an receiver system utilizing our novel technique for tracking and compensating for laser wavelength shifts in lidar systems. During Phase 1, we demonstrated that in addition to tracking and correcting for laser frequency drift, the system is able to track and correct for etalon frequency drift (in fact, only this relative frequency drift can be tracked). Data was collected before, during and after a frequency drift over a period of time typical of lidar data integration times. It was seen that integrating without the correction resulted in data too blurred to have any value, but that the correction system compensated for the shift and allowed for proper wavelength measurements. We now look to incorporate this technique into a lidar receiver system and demonstrate its viability in measuring wind velocity. This receiver would prove the ability to reduce the cost and technical difficulties in building a wind lidar system both for NASA programs (NASA-GSFC CATS wind lidar) and commercial systems for use in weather forecasting and airport wind shear monitoring. More »