Lidar Detection of Subvisible Reentry Vehicle Erosive Atmospheric Material.
Abstract
This report describes a lidar technique employed to detect conventionally undiscernible atmospheric particulate concentrations which cause unexpected nose-cone erosions of reentry missiles. It also describes the experiment, data, and data analysis results obtained during several Athena-H reentry missions conducted at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. Lidar data recorded on the Athena-H reentry nights of 26 April and 24 August 1973 provided information on subvisible tenuous layers located at heights of 9.3 km and 14.3 km, respectively. Analysis of the lidar data, concurrently recorded radiosonde meteorological data, and a clear day aerosol model yielded an average volume backscattering coefficient of 0.000043/m for the 9.3 km layer which was 310 m thick and 0.000032/m for the 14.3 km layer which was 500 m in depth. Calculations based on previous in-situ measurements of particulate sizes and elemental composition yielded an average concentration of 3.7 x 10 to the 5th power liquid droplets/cu/m or 26,000 ice crystals/cu/m for the 26 April cloud striation and an average concentration of 20,000 ice particles/cu/m or 2.2 x 10 to the 8th power arid particles/cu/m for the 24 August layer. The lidar data clearly distinguished between a truly clear atmospheric path, 21 March, and an apparently clear atmospheric path, 26 April and 24 August. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1977
- Accession Number
- ADA041085
Entities
People
- Roberto Rubio
Organizations
- United States Army Communications-Electronics Command