Abstract

The use of high performance Doppler velocity estimators to enhance the performance of laser radars has taken on an added importance in the context of space based wind measurement systems such as the Laser Atmospheric Wind Sounder (LAWS) instrument. The LAWS mission is designed to make wind measurements throughout the troposphere using scattering from atmospheric aerosols at CO₂ laser wavelengths. The need to make velocity estimates in very clean upper tropospheric conditions coupled with the strict limits imposed on the system power and aperture by the orbital platform require that usable velocity measurements be made at the lowest possible signal-to-noise ratios.

© 1991 Optical Society of America