Various design alternatives for spaceborne lidar instruments were investigated in the course of numerous studies. For a first flight opportunity, a backscatter lidar appears to be the most promising instrument concept for meteorological measurements: it provides height resolved data on the scattering and extinction properties of the atmosphere that can not be obtained with other spaceborne sensors, it is least demanding in terms of power consumption, size and weight, the technology for the various subassemblies and compontens is well developed and allows comparatively easy development of reliable spaceborne instruments, the capabilities of the instrument can be expanded at some later time to incorporate more advanced differential absorption techniques providing humidity and temperature prfoiles with good vertical resolution. In later stages, however, wind-sensing Doppler-lidars and DIAL-instruments that can probe concentration profiles of species like water vapor and ozone may be flown.
Design considerations for spaceborne lidars
Entwicklungs-Betrachtungen fuer Raumfahrt Lidaranlagen
1987
3 Seiten, 1 Bild, 3 Quellen
Conference paper
English