Development of a Lidar for Integration with the Naval Postgraduate School Infrared Search and Target Designation (NPS-IRSTD) System
Abstract
A lidar was designed and manufactured at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, to provide range information to atmospheric features, such as clouds. It is further planned to integrate the lidar with the NPS-IRSTD system at some future date. The NPS-IRSTD uses two vertical linear focal plane arrays for target detection and target direction can be determined very accurately but the system does not provide any useful range information. The lidar was proposed as the solution for this shortcoming. The lidar used a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser which had an energy output of 2 millijoules. The laser beam was expanded to 17.75 inches using a Dall-Kirkham telescope to operate within laser safety limitations. The theoretical analysis of the 'Klett' method for the inversion of lidar returns was derived and a MATLAB program was written to demonstrate the process. A daytime and nighttime maximum range equation for the lidar was developed. The considerations for integrating the lidar with the NPS-IRSTD were listed and a solution was proposed to obtain the mean extinction coefficient along the path in the infrared spectrum using the lidar inversion extinction coefficient profile at 532 nanometers.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA271847
Entities
People
- Murray M. Regush
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School