Feasibility And Design Considerations Of A Global Wind Sensing Coherent Infrared Radar (WINDSAT)

T. R. Lawrence; R. M. Huffaker; R. J. Keeler; M. J. Post; R. A. Richter; F. F. Hall Jr.

doi:10.1117/12.932574

30 April 1982 Feasibility And Design Considerations Of A Global Wind Sensing Coherent Infrared Radar (WINDSAT)

T. R. Lawrence, R. M. Huffaker, R. J. Keeler, M. J. Post, R. A. Richter, F. F. Hall Jr.

Proceedings Volume 0300, Physics and Technology of Coherent Infrared Radar I; (1982) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.932574
Event: 25th Annual Technical Symposium, 1981, San Diego, United States

Abstract

Since 1977, NOAA has been investigating the feasibility of a global wind-sensing lidar in response to the need for altitude profiles of the wind vector to serve as input to global circulation models. The lidar technique obtains the wind information by assessing the Doppler information contained in CO₂ laser radiation backscattered from the atmospheric aerosol (particulates, droplets, etc.). The results of studies undertaken to define the proposed system concept and hardware for a space-shuttle-borne demonstration flight are presented. Resulting from considerations of wind vector accuracy, area coverage and sampling density, signal detectability and space shuttle compatibility requirements were a continuous conical scan of the telescope with a half cone angle of 62° centered on nadir, telescope diameter (1.25 m), laser pulse energy (10 J), pulse repetition frequency (8 Hz), pulse duration (6 ins) and laser wavelength (9.11 pm). Requirements that the concept imposes on platform stability, navigation and attitude determination, line-of-sight pointing and lag angle compensation, on-board Doppler processing, prime power and thermal dissipation are discussed. The system configuration intended for a hardware design study is presented.

Citation Download Citation

T. R. Lawrence, R. M. Huffaker, R. J. Keeler, M. J. Post, R. A. Richter, and F. F. Hall Jr. "Feasibility And Design Considerations Of A Global Wind Sensing Coherent Infrared Radar (WINDSAT)", Proc. SPIE 0300, Physics and Technology of Coherent Infrared Radar I, (30 April 1982); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.932574

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