Remote Atmospheric Wind Speed Measurements by Individual Particle Scattering and Digital Burst Correlation

Abstract

We have demonstrated that atmospheric wind speeds can indeed be measured with photon bursts scattered from single dust particles. If photon counting electronics and clipped digital correlation are used for signal analysis, an unambiguous speed measurement can be made with a detected signal as low as ten counts under practical conditions, i.e., in the presence of noise. A microprocessor is used to run the LTV measurements automatically, and to analyze and compare data for both LTV and a conventional cup anemometer. Satisfactory agreement between the LTV and the cup anemometer were obtained. The potential of the LTV with its high speed data acquisition and its short measurement time has been thoroughly demonstrated. In the field test of this automated LTV system, we have conducted speed measurements with both natural aerosols and with seeding of water droplets from a humidifier. To our satisfaction, we obtained better performance without seeding. In short, with the research of this project, we have demonstrated beyond doubt the principle of single-particle scattering for remote speed measurements and also the practical uses of LTV under realistic field conditions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1979
Accession Number
ADA082347

Entities

People

  • C. Y. She
  • Richard F. Kelley

Organizations

  • Colorado State University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Amplifiers
  • Atmospheric Motion
  • Control Systems
  • Correlation Techniques
  • Correlators
  • Current Amplifiers
  • Data Acquisition
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Electronics
  • Field Tests
  • Information Science
  • Laser Beams
  • Lasers
  • Measurement
  • Probability Distributions
  • Wind Velocity

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Atmospheric Remote Sensing.
  • Fluid Dynamics.
  • Solar Physics

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics