Abstract

The Lidar In-space Technology Experiment (LITE)^1,2 was launched aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-64 at 22:23 UTC, Sept. 9, 1994. Over the ensuing 10-day period the LITE instrument accumulated 53 hours of 10-sec. averaged backscatter data within a few degrees of nadir at three wavelengths: 353, 532, and 1064 nm. The vertical resolution was 35 m and the transmit beam footprint diameter at the earth’s surface was 300 m, with an orbit inclination of 57°. The launch ensured night conditions for conjunction with most of the ground stations which supported the correlative measurement program. As part of this correlative program the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) operated two lidar systems coincident with predicted LITE overpass events. A brief description of the two systems follows.

© 1995 Optical Society of America