ABLEX: High Altitude Laser Propagation Experiment.
Abstract
This article describes the Airborne Laser Experiment (ABLEX) project. ABLEX consisted of a set of experiments conducted in December 1992 and January 1993 in which a laser beam was propagated between two aircraft flying at high altitude. In these experiments scintillation patterns resulting from propagation through turbulence were recorded. The purpose of the experiments was to determine the fundamental performance limits of an adaptive optics system which performed phase only compensation as part of an Airborne Laser (ABL) theater missile defense weapon platform. Rather than field a highly complex, and expensive, airborne test-bed equipped with a state-of-the-art adaptive optics system, the physics-limited performance was determined by a novel, and quite simple method. This technique permitted a Strehl determination through measurements of the scintillation patterns resulting from propagation through turbulence. ABLEX was a scaled experiment: the aperture, operating wavelength, range to target, and platform altitude were all chosen such that the optical effects experienced by the propagating laser beam would be identical to those experienced by a high energy laser (HEL) beam. ABLEX was conducted as part of the ABL Risk Reduction program that was carried out in the first phase of the ABL program. (MM)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA294914
Entities
People
- L. D. Weaver
- R. R. Butts