EAGER: Thermospheric Helium (He) Resonance LIDAR Development

EAGER：热层氦 (He) 共振激光雷达开发

• 批准号: 0934492
• 负责人: Gary Swenson
• 金额: $ 29.63万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2011-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0934492&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Thermospheric; Helium; He; Resonance

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This project is for the continued development of a Helium (He) 1083nm resonance bistatic lidar which will achieve the first lidar measurements of the upper thermosphere. A key element in the lidar design and construction has already been attained: a tunable 10-Watt continuous-wave solid-state narrow band laser transmitter operating at 1083 nm has been developed at the Principal Investigator (PI) institution. The next tasks to be completed are to (1) upgrade the existing laser and sensor elements; (2) demonstrate the lidar's capability through field measurements; and (3) increase the transmitter power and implement frequency shifting. The first task involves implementing a frequency lock of the transmitter to the He resonance line. The second task will test the frequency-locked transmitter by measuring metastable He densities at Magdalena Ridge Observatory near Socorro, New Mexico, at an altitude of 10,500 feet and comparing them with model calculations. The third task continues instrument development by increasing the transmitter power to 50 W and implementing frequency shifting in order to Doppler sample the He distribution from which temperatures and winds can be derived. In terms of broader impacts, the new lidar will open new areas of study in both theory and experiment as well as in advanced laser technology. It will provide correlative information for current upper atmosphere instruments such as incoherent scatter radar and imagers. Graduate and undergraduate students are heavily involved in the research activities and will acquire broad training in instrument design, development, testing, calibration, and operation, as well as signal processing and data analysis and interpretation. The new lidar will be used as a hands-on laboratory tool for one of the engineering courses at the PI institution. Finally, the project does have the potential to be transformative, both in furthering lidar design and development and in providing a new observing capability to upper atmospheric science.

该奖项是根据2009年的《美国回收与再投资法》（公法111-5）资助的。该项目是为了持续开发氦气（HE）1083nm共振bistatic Bistatic Lidar，该项目将实现上层热层的首个激光雷达测量。 LIDAR设计和施工中的一个关键要素已经达到：在首席研究员（PI）机构已经开发了可调的10瓦连续波固态窄带激光发射器。 要完成的下一个任务是（1）升级现有激光器和传感器元素； （2）通过现场测量来证明激光雷达的能力； （3）增加发射器功率并实施频率变化。 第一个任务涉及将发射器的频率锁定到HE共振线上。 第二个任务将通过测量新墨西哥州Socorro附近的Magdalena Ridge天文台的可稳态密度来测试频率锁定的发射器，高度为10,500英尺，并将其与模型计算进行比较。 第三个任务通过将发射器功率提高到50 W并实现频率转移来延续仪器的开发，以便多普勒采样了可以从中得出温度和风的分布。 在更广泛的影响方面，新的激光雷达将在理论和实验以及先进的激光技术中开放新的研究领域。 它将为当前的上层大气仪器（例如不一致的散点雷达和成像仪）提供相关信息。 研究生和本科生大量参与研究活动，并将在仪器设计，开发，测试，校准和操作以及信号处理以及数据分析和解释方面接受广泛的培训。 新的激光雷达将用作PI机构其中一门工程课程的动手实验室工具。 最后，该项目确实有可能具有变革性，无论是在推动激光雷达设计和开发以及为上层大气科学提供新的观察能力方面。