Aerospace App ions of Optical Sensing

S. M. Beck, J. A. Gelbwachs, D. A. Hinkley, D. W. Warren, and J. E. Wessel

The Aerospace Corporation
P. 0. Box 92957
Los Angeles, California 90009
(310) 336-1534
steven.beck@aero.org

Abstract-Remote optical sensing with lasers,
known as lidar, has been shown to be a useful
technique for civilian meteorological and
environmental applications. Recently, the
potential of lidar for addressing applications of
interest to aerospace systems has been
recognized. Ground- based lidars are ideally
suited for the calibration of instruments
onboard satellites. Other aerospace
applications include monitoring the impact of
launch vehicles upon the environment. Future
satellite systems are envisioned carrying
onboard lidars for atmospheric
characterization. In this paper we will
discuss briefly the lidar technique, outline
important aerospace applications for which
lidar is ideally suited, and describe the mobile
lidar system under construction at The
Aerospace Corporation.
1. INTRODUCTION
Laser remote sensing of the atmosphere,
known as lidar, has been shown to be a
powerful means to acquire range-resolved
densities of atmospheric species[11. When
coupled with scannable optics three
dimensional profiles can be constructed.
Important meteorological parameters such as
density, temperature, humidity, aerosols, and
wind velocity as well as cloud properties have
been acquired by lidar to altitudes of 100 km.
Environmental species such as ozone,
nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other
urban pollutants, as well ais stack effluents
such as sulfur dioxide and HC1, have been
monitored at the sub ppm concentration level
out to several kilometers range. Lidar have
been developed that monitor critical indicators
of climatological change such as stratospheric
ozone and particulates as well as mesospheric
temperature. In this paper we will discuss
briefly the lidar technique, outline important
aerospace applications for which lidar is
ideally suited, and describe the multi-purpose
mobile lidar system under construction at The
Aerospace Corporation.
2. PRINCIPLES OF LIDAR
A schematic representation of a mobile lidar
unit appears in Fig. 1. A short pulse laser
beam is propagated into the atmosphere
through transmission optics. The faint
backscattered light from molecules and
particles at a distance is collected by a
telescope collocated with the transmitter. The
collected light is spectrally analyzed and the
photons in individual wavelength channels are
converted to electronic impulses by
photodetectors. The electronic signals are
then processed and stored in small computers

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for subsequent display and analysis. A time- physical properties. Additionally, it is
of-flight analysis yields range information particularly useful for locating clould bases.
while the strength of the optical returns is
related to the molecular or particle density. Another important area for lidar is monitoring
The most common optical interactions of the environmental impact of rocket
exploited for acquisition of species profiles are launches. The current generation of launch
fluorescence, absorption, Raman scattering, vehicles powered by solid rocket motors
Mie scattering, and Rayleigh scattering. injects large quantities of chlorine and alumina
particles into the stratosphere. It is estimated
APPLICATIONS
3. AEROSPACE that chlorine emission into the 15 - 40 km
altitude region by the Titan IV vehicle and the
Atmospheric sensing instruments onboard
space shuttle is 48 tons and 79 tons,
meteorological satellites that rely upon passive
respectively, per mission. Active chlorine in
microwave radiometry require ground based
the stratosphere is known to rapidly catalyze
calibration techniques. Among these
ozone destruction. Hence, environmental
instruments is the SSWT-2 (Special Sensor
concerns have been raised over the impact of
Microwave/Temperature-2) microwave
these launches upon the natural ozone layer.
humidity radiometer onboard DMSP (Defense
Comprehensive chemical and transport models
Meteorological Satellite Program) and
have been constructed to understand rocket
instruments onboard UARS (Upper
exhaust effects in the stratosphere. Recent
Atmospheric Research Satellite). Current
models predict almost complete ozone
calibration techniques involve the use of
depletion in stratospheric tracks that extend
radiosondes. However, these devices suffer
over several kilometers and persist for up to a
from hysteresis effects and degraded
day. However, the size and persistence of the
performance at high and very low humidity
hole are very sensitive to the rate of
and at low temperature. Because ground-based
dissipation of the rocket plume, which is
lidar can be made to sample the same
poorly understood at present. Hence, direct
atmospheric region that a passing satellite
measurements of ozone densities are critical to
senses from above it is considered an ideal
confirm the spatial and temporal evolution of
calibration technique for this application.
the hole and for model validation. Thus far,
Furthermore, as mentioned above, ground-
observations have been elusive because of the
based lidars can monitor important
transient nature of the localized plume coupled
meteorological parameters. Recently they
with its rather inaccessible location. Recently
have been proposed as instruments onboard
satellites. From a space platform it is the Titan Program Office of the USAF Space
and Missile Center has sponsored the
anticipated that they will provide worldwide
development of a mobile lidar unit by the
coverage of important weather variables as a
Phillips Lab Geophysics Directorate which is
function of altitude down to ground level.
to be taken to Cape Canaveral to monitor for
A related application involves clouds.
stratospheric ozone depletion in the exhaust
Understanding of cloud properties is important plume of Titan IV vehicles. Measurements
are scheduled for FY 96.
for meteorological and surveillance
applications. Lidar is an excellent technique
Another area of concern is the toxic ground
to monitor cloud heights, attenuation, and
cloud associated with the launch of solid
rocket motors. These vehicles emit copious
quantities of HC1 upon launch in the form of a
ground cloud that poses a health hazard.
Lidar is an excellent tool to track the drift of
the ground cloud and map the HC1 densities as
a function of time. A related application
involves the validation of wind dispersion
models that are used to determine when it is
safe to launch. In this application a tracer
species such as sulfur hexafluoride is released
at the launch site and tracked by the lidar. The
three dimensional density maps are then
compared with the predictions of the wind
dispersion models for validation purposes.
4. DESCRIPTION
OF AEROSPACE MOBILE
LIDAR
The mobile lidar system is expected to
accommodate a multi-purpose mission. To
that end, the system has been designed to be
versatile, easily converted from one type of
measurement to another. A schematic of the
Aerospace Mobile Lidar (AML) is shown in
Figure 1. The major components of the
system are a 30 inch aperture, full-sky rotating
beam director and receiver, a 30 inch receiver
telescope, detection optics and electronics, and
a variety of laser transmitters. The system is
housed in a mobile facility capable of being
towed or transported by military aircraft.
Below is a more detailed description of the
major components of the AML.
Receiver
An important feature of the system which adds
to its versatility is the large aperture receiving
system. This provides the ability to observe
signals from inherently weak scatters, low
concentrations of scatterers, or large ranges.
The receiver consists of a 30 inch aperture
telescope coupled to a two mirror, 30 inch
aperture beam director and receiver. The
telescope is a folded f/7.5 cassegrain. The
primary mirror, constructed of Astrositall (a
low thermal expansion material developed in
the former Soviet Union), is f/2.5. A tertiary
fold mirror is incorporated into a central bore
in the primary mirror so that the primary focus
of the telescope occurs at the side of the
telescope tube. The fold mirror can be rotated
into four detent positions, each separated from
the next by 90 degrees. Tlnis allows quick
conversion from one detection scheme to
another with virtually no resetting or
realignment of optics required. The planned
large-aperture beam-director and receiver
scanning optics will consist of two 45 inch by
32 inch elliptical flat mirrors, mounted in a
tubular housing. The mirrors also will be
made from Astrositall. The azimuth degree of
freedom is supplied by a large horizontally
mounted crane bearing having an integrally
mounted ring gear for driving the mount. The
same type of bearing is mounted vertically,
with its own ring gear, and supplies the
elevation degree of freedom. The mount
swings 360 degrees in azimuth, and 160
degrees in elevation, 80 degrees each side of
zenith. Laser transmitter relaiy mirrors will be
mounted at the center of each of the large
elliptical beam director mirrors using a spider
mechanism. This allows facile changes in the
transmitter mirrors as required by changes in
transmitted wavelengths. The surface figures
of the mirrors in the receiving optical path are
specified to permit 100% of the image energy
to be contained within a spot 0.1 mrad in
diameter (approximately 0.6 mm at the
telescope focal position).
The received backscattered radiation passes
through a field stop placed at the primary
focus. The telescope was designed to operate
with a 0.3 mrad field-of-view. This limits the
collection of background radiation to just that
in the solid angle of the projiected laser beam.
After the field stop, the received radiation is
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 Aerospace Mobile LIDAR Housing Unit
t

laser transmitte

Computer station
or system control,
data acquisition,
and display

collecting telescope
Photodetector and
spectral filter package

Figure 1. Schematic representation of the multi-purpose transportable lidar under development

at the Aerospace Corporation.

Figure 2. Photograph of the mobile lidar transportable housing.

94
collimated with lenses, separated by
wavelength using dichroic beam splitters, and
detected by photomultiplier tubes having
narrow bandpass filters in front of their
apertures.
Transmitter
The transmitter section simply consists of a
support structure for the lasers, beam
expansion telescopes, and steering mirrors.
The current laser, used for Raman scattering
measurements of water profiles, is a large
pulsed Nd:YAG laser with wavelength-
doubling and tripling capability. Other lasers
and multiple lasers can be accommodated in
the mobile housing. The laser beams are
projected coaxially with the beam director and
receiver assembly using the small laser
mirrors mounted at the center of the large
elliptical mirrors.
Mobile Housing Unit (MHU)
A photograph of the unit that houses the
mobile lidar system is shown in Fig. 2. This
unit was originally used as a military, field-
deployed radar system. It was acquired by
Aerospace and the interior was completely
refitted with a new electrical system, lights, air
conditioning, and carpeting. The wheels are
attached as a dolly system to the container box
which can be lowered to the ground
hydraulically. This allows the system to be
rigidly secured to the ground during operation
and provides a very stable work platform.
The dolly system also provides air suspension
to the box during road transportation. The box
structure was quite strong and rigid, however,
in order to support the heavy rotating beam
director assembly, internal bracing was added.
The telescope and other optics are mounted to
an aluminum honeycomb structure which is
bolted directly to the floor of the MHU. An
important requirement for the mobile lidar is
that it be transportable by military aircraft
such as C-130s or C-141s. This places a strict
height limit on the system, requiring that the
beam director and receiver assembly be
demountable from the roof during
transportation. Therefore, a system was
designed whereby the rotating beam director is
carried on the front of the MHU in a lowered
position, such that the top of the beam director
assembly is at roof level with the MHU. In
order to deploy the system, a platform on a
carriage raises the bottom of the scanning
optics to roof level. The rotating beam
director is then pushed into position over the
azimuthal bearing along a seit of rails mounted
to the MHU roof. Once there, it is lowered
onto the bearing and secured.
5. SUMMARY
Remote optical sensing with lasers has
become a valuable tool for acquisition of
important atmospheric data :for many civilian
applications. Aerospace aipplications have
been identified that could blenefit from lidar.
We have begun construction of a unique
multi-purpose transportable lidar system to
address these applications.
Acknowledgments
This work was jointly supported by the
Aerospace Sponsored Research program and
the DMSP Program Office. The authors wish
to thank Dwight Abbott of the Space
Technology Applications csEce and Don
Boucher of the DMSP Program Office for
their support and encouragement.
References
1. R. M. Measures, Laser Remoire Sensing, Malabar,
Florida: Krieger, 1992.
Steven M. Beck was born in Oaklimd, CA in 1954. He
received the B. S . in chemistry fiom the University of
California Santa Barbara (1976) and the Ph.D. in
Chemical Physics from Rice University, Houston TX
95
 (1980). His graduate research focused on the
spectroscopy and dynamics of aromatic molecules in
supersonic molecular beams. Following graduation, he
was a postdoctoral fellow at the Bell Telephone
Laboratory, Murray Hill, NJ. (1980-1982) where he
studied molecular processes in liquids using time-
resolved Raman Spectroscopy. After leaving Bell, Dr.
Beck went to Occidental Research Corporation in 1982
and then joined the Aerospace Corporation, El
Segundo, CA in 1983. From 83-94 he was a member
of the technical staff where his research interests
involved spectroscopy, dynamics, and chemistry of
small metal, semiconductor, and organic molecular
clusters in supersonic beams. He also carried out
picosecond time-resolved experiments on
semiconductor surfaces and trace detection of toxic
compounds using photoacoustic techniques. Dr. Beck
became manager of the Lidar, Optical Propagation, and
Spectroscopy Section in 1994 and has recently been
involved in development of a mobile lidar system for
application to Air Force and Aerospace needs. He has
co-authored over 40 publications and a book chapter.
Dr. Beck is a life member of the American Physical
Society.
Jerry A. Gelbwachs received a Bachelors Degree
(magna cum laude) from The City College of New
York. He was awarded a National Science Foundation
Fellowship to pursue graduate studies at Stanford
University where he received a Ph.D. degree in 1970.
While at Stanford he participated in research in the
areas of lasers and non-linear optics. Dr. Gelbwachs
joined The Aerospace Corporation in 1970 and has held
various technical and managerial positions. He is
currently Senior Scientist in the Lasers and Optical
Physics Department. His research activities during this
time period have encompassed ultra-sensitive trace
detection, photoacoustic spectroscopy, atmospheric
lidar, and atomic resonance filters. In 1981, Dr.
Gelbwachs received the Aerospace Corporation's
President's Award for Science. Dr. Gelbwachs has co-
authored over fifty publications and one book chapter.
He has been granted five U.S. patents. In 1981, he
organized the SPIE symposium entitled "Laser
Spectroscopy for Sensitive Detection," and edited the
proceedings (SPIE 286). In 1982, Dr. Gelbwachs
taught an upper level laser physics course at Califomia
State University at Long Beach. He has served on the
program committees for various national laser
conferences (CLEO and LEOS) and is currently CLEO
'95 subcommittee chairman for "Atmospheric, Space,
and Ocean Optics." Dr. Gelbwachs is a Fellow
of the Optical Society of America, a Senior Member of
96
the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and
a member of the American Physical Society.
John Wessel received the B. S. degree in chemistry
from the University of Califomia, Los Angeles (1965)
and the Ph.D. degree in chemical physics from the
University of Chicago (1970). From 1970 to 1974 he
was a Postdoctoral Fellow and Instructor in Chemistry
at the University of Pennsylvania, where he conducted
research on picosecond and two-photon molecular
spectroscopy. He joined the Aerospace Corporation, El
Segundo, CA, in 1974 and while there, has conducted
research in molecular, atomic, semiconductor, and
surface spectroscopies. He is currently involved in
meteorological remote sensing involving lidar and
microwave techniques. Dr. Wessel is a member of the
American Physical Society, the American Chemical
Society, the AAAS, and Sigma Xi.
David W. Warren received the MS degree in optical
engineering from the University of Rochester in 1977.
He subsequentlyjoined the technical staff of the
Aerospace Corporation, where he has specialized in the
design of instruments for space, astronomical, and earth
resources applications.
David A. Hinkley was born in Concord, MA in 1967.
He received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering in
1989 from the University of Califomia at San Diego and
the M.S. in manufacturing engineering in 1991 from the
University of Califomia at Los Angeles. From 1987 to
1993 he was an associate to the technical staff at The
Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA. During 1992
to 1993 he consulted for Lyntone Engineering working
on R&D projects for their main customer, the Rain Bird
Sprinkler Company. Presently he is an associate member
of the technical staff at The Aerospace Corporation
'
where he works on mechanical vibration control in laser
cavities, optical component alignment structures,
computer aided desigdmanufacturing and computer
controlled projects.