SEARCH · Engineering Papers
Results for “doppler lidar”
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
cogs.c1
COGS is a four-dimensional (4D) map of cloudiness generated by multiview stereo reconstruction using the ARM stereo camera ring at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) atmospheric observatory. These data are particularly useful for studies of the life cycles and macrophysical attributes of shallow cumulus clouds. COGS covers a 6 km x 6 km x 6 km region at the SGP Central Facility centered at the position of the Doppler lidar.
The 1979 clear air turbulence flight test program
A clear air turbulence (CAT) flight test to evaluate and test four different sensors in the detection and measuring of CAT and other meteorological targets that relate to turbulence is discussed. The primary types of CAT investigated were mountain wave CAT, jetstream CAT, CAT in cirrus clouds, and CAT in frontal wind shears, troughs, and ridges. The sensors included the CO2 pulsed Doppler lidar and three radiometers. One of the radiometers, at a frequency of 55.5 GHz, looked at atmospheric temperature structure. Another, at a frequency of 180.1 GHz, looked at atmospheric water vapor and investigated the feasibility of measuring at the microwave frequency the turbulence features seen in the infrared (IR) frequencies. An IR radiometer at 27 to 33 microns was the fourth sensor. This last device and the temperature structure radiometer worked well at all flight levels.
The 1979 Clear Air Turbulence Flight Test Program
The flight experiments for clear air turbulence (CAT) detection and measurement concepts are described. The test were conducted over the western part of the United States during the winter season of 1979 aboard NASA's Galileo 2 flying laboratory. A carbon dioxide pulsed Doppler lidar and an infrared radiometer were tested for the remote detection and measurement of CAT. Two microwave radiometers were evaluated for their ability to provide encounter warning and altitude avoidance information.
Severe storms and local weather research
Developments in the use of space related techniques to understand storms and local weather are summarized. The observation of lightning, storm development, cloud development, mesoscale phenomena, and ageostrophic circulation are discussed. Data acquisition, analysis, and the development of improved sensor and computer systems capability are described. Signal processing and analysis and application of Doppler lidar data are discussed. Progress in numerous experiments is summarized.
Submegahertz frequency-stablized Nd:YAG oscillator
The operation of a 5-msec, quasi-continuous wave (CW) 10-Hz repetition-rate pulsed single-frequency Nd:YAG oscillator with a feedback stabilized frequency bandwidth of less than 200 kHz is described. The major problems associated with frequency stabilization for quasi-CW operation, frequency chirp and maintenance of the frequency control signal, are described, and the design of a wide-bandwidth frequency locking system with a search and chirp compensation loop is given. This frequency stabilized oscillator is a potentially useful laser source for atmospheric wind velocity measurements by coherent lidar Doppler velocimetry, which require a laser source with less than 1 MHz linewidth, and also has applications in high-resolution nonlinear spectroscopic studies at Fourier-transform-limited linewidths.
NASA/MSFC FY-83 Atmospheric Research Review
Atmospheric research conducted at the Marshall Space Flight Center in FY 1983 is discussed. Clear air turbulence, gusts, and fog dispersal near airports is discussed. The use of Doppler Lidar signals in discussed, as are low level flow conditions that are hazardous to aircraft.
Research study: Organization and development of organized convection in the boundary layer
The status of a study to investigate the convective structures found in Doppler lidar windfield data is reported. Projected research is mentioned briefly.
Morphology and development of organized convection in the boundary layer
Vector windspeed measurements in a horizontal plane are derived from an airborne Doppler lidar. Error correction has improved so that those which remain do not affect local flow analysis. This allows measurements of wave structures in and near the boundary layer. Deep boundary layer measurements show pronounced interacting wave structures. Wave structures were also observed to result from obstacle flow.
Research study: Studies in atmospheric processes from Space Platforms
Activities of the project for studies in atmospheric processes from space platforms are described. Topics include feasibility studies for a Low Altitude Research Satellite system, a satellite borne Doppler lidar wind monitoring system, the relationship between solar variability and weather, atmospheric modeling, cloud physics, and aerosol studies.
Precision pointing using a dual-wedge scanner
A system was developed for calibrating and precisely pointing a germanium dual-wedge scanner for a CO2 Doppler lidar from an airborne platform. The equations implemented in pointing the scanner and those in the iterative calibration program, which combines available data with estimated parameters of the scanner orientation relative to the axes of the aircraft's inertial navigation system to arrive at corrected scanner parameters are described. The effect of specific error conditions on program performance and the results of the program when used on 1981 test data are investigated.
Progress in coherent laser radar
Considerable progress with coherent laser radar has been made over the last few years, most notably perhaps in the available range of high performance devices and components and the confidence with which systems may now be taken into the field for prolonged periods of operation. Some of this increasing maturity was evident at the 3rd Topical Meeting on Coherent Laser Radar: Technology and Applications. Topics included in discussions were: mesoscale wind fields, nocturnal valley drainage and clear air down bursts; airborne Doppler lidar studies and comparison of ground and airborne wind measurement; wind measurement over the sea for comparison with satellite borne microwave sensors; transport of wake vortices at airfield; coherent DIAL methods; a newly assembled Nd-YAG coherent lidar system; backscatter profiles in the atmosphere and wavelength dependence over the 9 to 11 micrometer region; beam propagation; rock and soil classification with an airborne 4-laser system; technology of a global wind profiling system; target calibration; ranging and imaging with coherent pulsed and CW system; signal fluctuations and speckle. Some of these activities are briefly reviewed.
A theory for the retrieval of virtual temperature from winds, radiances and the equations of fluid dynamics
A technique to deduce the virtual temperature from the combined use of the equations of fluid dynamics, observed wind and observed radiances is described. The wind information could come from ground-based sensitivity very high frequency (VHF) Doppler radars and/or from space-borne Doppler lidars. The radiometers are also assumed to be either space-borne and/or ground-based. From traditional radiometric techniques the vertical structure of the temperature can be estimated only crudely. While it has been known for quite some time that the virtual temperature could be deduced from wind information only, such techniques had to assume the infallibility of certain diagnostic relations. The proposed technique is an extension of the Gal-Chen technique. It is assumed that due to modeling uncertainties the equations of fluid dynamics are satisfied only in the least square sense. The retrieved temperature, however, is constrained to reproduce the observed radiances. It is shown that the combined use of the three sources of information (wind, radiances and fluid dynamical equations) can result in a unique determination of the vertical temperature structure with spatial and temporal resolution comparable to that of the observed wind.
Atmospheric lateral and longitudinal turbulent length scales (measured at 600 to 800 meters above grade level)
NASA's Airborne Doppler Lidar System has been used to obtain a detailed 'instantaneous' mapping of horizontal spatial wind fields at 600-800 m elevations on the east side of the San Gorgonio Pass in California, in the form of checkerboard-fashion horizontal wind vectors spaced at 300 m intervals along and normal to the flight path. Spatial autocorrelations for the lateral and longitudinal components are ensemble-averaged, and integral turbulent length scales are computed for the wind fields' longitudinal and lateral directions. The flow in the region studied does not appear to be isotropic.
Optical properties of Southern Hemisphere aerosols: Report of the joint CSIRO/NASA study
This study was made in support of the LAWS and GLOBE programs, which aim to design a suitable Doppler lidar system for measuring global winds from a satellite. Observations were taken from 5 deg S to 45 deg S along and off the E and SE Australian coast, thus obtaining representative samples over a large latitude range. Observations were made between 0 and 6 km altitude of aerosol physical and chemical properties in situ from the CSIRO F-27 aircraft; of lidar backscatter coefficients at 10.6 micron wavelength from the F-27 aircraft; of lidar backscatter profiles at 0.694 microns at Sale, SE Australia; and of lidar backscatter profiles at 0.532 microns at Cowley Beach, NE Australia. Both calculations and observations in the free troposphere gave a backscatter coefficient of 1-2 x 10 to the -11/m/sr at 10.6 microns, although the accuracies of the instruments were marginal at this level. Equivalent figures were 2-8 x 10 to the -9/m/sr (aerosol) and 9 x 10 to the -9 to 2 x 10 to the -8/m/sr (lidar) at 0.694 microns wavelength at Sale; and 3.7 x 10 to the -9/m/sr (aerosol) and 10 to the -8 to 10 to the -7/m/sr (lidar) at 0.532 microns wavelength at Cowley Beach. The measured backscatter coefficients at 0.694 and 0.532 microns were consistently higher than the values calculated from aerosol size distributions by factors of typically 2 to 10.
Aircraft/lidar turbulence comparison
Very good agreement between remotely sensed winds using a ground-based Doppler lidar and in situ measurements with an instrumented aircraft is possible. Results show that turbulence intensities computed from time histories measured with the aircraft and time histories of the radial wind measured with lidar can be analyzed statistically to provide turbulence intensities and turbulence spectra which agree well with one another. The results further show that the second moment data, as presently compared with the NASA/MSFC algorithms, do not provide meaningful comparisons with turbulence intensities measured with the aircraft. This disagreement, however, must be investigated further in terms of the accuracy of the second moment data determined by both the lidar hardware and the algorithm for computing the second moment.
Global measurements of wind fields using the Laser Atmospheric Wind Sounder (LAWS) on the Earth Observing System (EOS)
The technology for measuring global wind fields in space by the Laser Atmospheric Wind Sounder (LAWS) to be flown on the Earth Observing System (EOS) is discussed. Studies initiated by NASA to determine the feasibility of using Doppler lidar from a platform in space to measure the wind globally have shown the general feasibility of the technique and have identified the technological problems that need to be resolved. Among the lidar systems being evaluated, CO2 coherent detection lidar is given special consideration. A comprehensive research program, the Global Backscatter Experiment, has been established to study global distribution of naturally occurring atmospheric aerosols that provide signal return at the wavelengths used by the techniques under consideration. Wind profiles from space will provide essential information for advancing the skill of numerical weather prediction, furthering the present knowledge of the large-scale atmospheric circulation and climate dynamics, and of global biogeochemical and hydrologic cycles.