A Design Study for the Laser Atmospheric Wind Sounder (LAWS) Transmitter

Abstract

A conceptual design study of the laser transmitter was completed during Phase A of the NASA's LAWS instrument development program. The proposed LAWS instrument is a space-based doppler lidar wind profiler consisting of a pulsed, frequency-stable laser as its transmitter, which is the subject of this paper. The telescope, heterodyne detection system and signal processor designs will be reported in another paper.(1) While both solid-state and CO2 lasers were considered as potential candidates for the LAWS instrument, it became clear early on that CO2 lasers had definite advantages over the solid-state at the present time. Although, the solid-state technology is rapidly advancing, it does not yet have the maturity enjoyed by the CO2 technology.(2) Furthermore, the CO2 wavelength is clearly favored from eye safety consideration. Therefore, our design study was performed primarily for a pulsed CO2 laser.