COHERENT LIDAR AIRBORNE WIND SENSOR .2. FLIGHT-TEST RESULTS AT 2 AND 10 MU-M

The use of airborne laser radar (lidar) to measure wind velocities and to detect turbulence in front of an aircraft in real time can signifi cantly increase fuel efficiency, flight safety, and terminal area capa city. We describe the flight-test results for two coherent lidar airbo rne shear sensor (CLASS) systems and discuss their agreement with our theoretical simulations. The 10.6-mu m CO2 system (CLASS-10) is a flyi ng brassboard; the 2.02-mu m Tm:YAG solid-state system (CLASS-2) is co nfigured in a lugged, light-weight, high-performance package. Both lid ars have shown a wind measurement accuracy of better than 1 m/s. (C) 1 996 Optical Society of America.