In addition to NASA's use in various lidar systems, the PLC technology, in general, will find use in fiber and free-space communications where rapid, moderate power phase modulation is required. This technology can also be applied for systems used for environmental and pollution monitoring, spectroscopic measurement techniques, visible display applications, and for stabilizing laser sources and interferometric filters.
The primary customer is NASA Langley's High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) program for aerosol and cloud characterization. HSRL is targeted for the ACE Mission by NASA's ACE Science Working Group because of the higher information content it provides over backscatter lidar on key aerosol optical and microphysical properties. The proposed UV technology will find uses in other NASA lidar remote sensing programs, such as UV DIAL lidar and Doppler lidar for 3D Winds where compact, low cost, UV stabilized sources are required. This technology also has potential application as a calibration source for visible to UV spectrometers (such as MODIS), as well as for multi-wavelength imaging for atmospheric correction.
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