The target application for our receiver will be laser detection and ranging. This includes Earth-based satellites, which use laser ranging to monitor atmospheric conditions and topographical features, or planetary mission that require laser altimeters for landing or topographical and atmospheric mapping. Select mission include: Aerosol-Cloud-Ecosystem (ACE), Doppler Wind Lidar for Surface Topology (LIST) and Geostationary Coastal Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE). NASA's existing systems, such as the Airborne cloud physics Lidar (CPL) and instruments for Wind and Raman Lidar, will also employ relevant receiver technology. In addition to non-NASA laser ranging applications, the proposed detector would be useful for commercial technology related to optical communication, fluorescence lifetime imaging and medical imaging. The technology could be used as a low cost and compact receiver for high speed vehicle or object tracking. In addition, it would offer improved readout of scintillators for radiation detection and monitoring in health care and homeland security applications.
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