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Michael J Kavaya

Publications and source records attributed to Michael J Kavaya.

Instrument Offset Optimization Technique for Airborne Doppler Wind Lidar Profiling Algorithm

This paper presents the instrument offset optimization technique for the Doppler Aerosol Wind Lidar (DAWN) profiling algorithm at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). The 2 um Doppler wind Lidar system at LaRC has a long history of research development and airborne campaigns. The core of the wind Lidar data processing is Airborne Wind Profiling Algorithm for Doppler Wind Lidar (APOLO), which was developed at LaRC. The extraction of wind parameters from the airborne Doppler wind Lidar data is challenging due to many factors such as the speed of aircraft, and the errors in instrument installation and calibration. It is unavoidable to prevent the adverse impact of calibration error and instrument installation offset on the performance of wind parameter estimation in the algorithm. Due to the unsteady environment where the data are collected, even a small offset will result in nonsensical results in the parameter estimation process. A brief introduction of APOLO and the overview of the optimization techniques are presented in this paper.

Wind profile

Lidar Remote Sensing System

A lidar remote sensing system wherein a laser signal is transmitted along an optical path through a telescope having a primary and secondary mirrors and a rotating prism at the telescope output. When the reflected signal from the target is received it is passed back through the system to a detector, where it is heterodyned with a signal from a local oscillator to detect Doppler frequency shifts in the returned signal. Since the prism is rotating, the prism will be at one position when the signal is transmitted and at another when the returned signal is received. This causes the reflected signal to be off the optical path, reducing the power of the returned signal. To correct this problem a de-rotator or prism is mounted for rotation, in synchronism with the rotating prism. about the optical path in a position to intersect the returned beam and refract it back onto the optical path to reduce the power loss in the returned signal.

Michael J Kavaya

TPSAS-NF1676L-18834-DND

This presentation will give an overview of the 20-plus years of pulsed transmit laser development at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) to enable a coherent Doppler wind lidar to measure global winds from earth orbit. Our group at LaRC has been developing the pulsed laser and other coherent lidar technologies for the global wind mission since the late 1980s. The causal path followed has been from space mission requirements to coherent lidar requirements to component requirements to technology development and finally to ground and aircraft validation. We will describe the development and deployment of Doppler Aerosols Wind Lidar (DAWN) for airborne measurement of wind velocity and direction. The will also present the status of ongoing fully conductively-cooled 2-micron wind lidar transmitter for NASA 3-D winds mission.

Upendra N Singh

TPSAS-NF1676L-28151-DND

The proposed suborbital mission is to collect and analyze observations to help improve our ability to model and forecast these crucial monsoonal transports and their downstream effects. The objectives are 1) to observe and relate convective-scale to meso-scale changes in the three-dimensional circulation with the efficiency of the resulting convective transports (of air mass and heat) and the build-up of the large-scale anomalies, as they are modulated by the three-dimensional structure of the aerosol loading; and 2) to observe how fluctuations in the monsoon large-scale upper-level outflow affect downstream convection, especially within AEWs. The observations will be tailor-made to help understand the controls of the northward march of the monsoon isochrones, the initiation and magnitude of heat towers over the subcontinent during the monsoon, and how the mostly zonal land-sea differential heating interacts with the meridional progress of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) to constrain the intensities of the northern and western outflows. Unique contributions will be made by two airborne instruments, operated in concert: NASA-LARC's Doppler Aerosol Wind Lidar (DAWN) coherent-detection wind lidar which uses a pulsed laser with a wavelength of about two microns to measure vertical profiles of the three dimensional components of the wind field, and JPL's Airborne Second Generation Precipitation Radar (APR-2) precipitation radar which measures the three-dimensional structure of rain within a swath that is about10km wide (depending on the altitude of the plane) and extends from flight level down to the surface.

Upendra N Singh