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By utilizing progress in millijoule-level pulsed fiber lasers operating in the 1.96 µm spectral range, we introduce a concept utilizing a spaceborne differential absorption barometric lidar designed to operate within the 1.96 µm CO2 absorption band for remote sensing of Martian atmospheric properties. Our focus is on the online wavelength situated in the trough region of two absorption lines, selected due to its insensitivity to laser frequency variations, thus mitigating the necessity for stringent laser frequency stability. Our investigation revolves around a compact lidar configuration, featuring reduced telescope dimensions and lower laser pulse energies. These adjustments are geared towards minimizing costs for potential forthcoming Mars missions. The core measurement objectives encompass the determination of column CO2 absorption optical depth, columnar CO2 abundance, surface atmospheric pressure, and vertical distributions of dust and cloud layers. Through the amalgamation of surface pressure data with atmospheric temperature insights garnered from sounders and utilizing the barometric formula, the prospect of deducing atmospheric pressure profiles becomes feasible. Simulation studies validate the viability of our approach. Notably, the precision of Martian surface pressure measurements is projected to surpass 1 Pa when the aerial dust optical depth is projected to be under 0.7, a typical airborne dust scenario on Mars, considering a horizontal averaging span of 10 km. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) developed a double pulsed, high energy 2-micron Integrated Path Differential Absorption (IPDA) lidar instrument to measure atmospheric CO2 column density. The 2-μm double pulsed IPDA lidar was flown ten times in March and April of 2014. It was determined that the IPDA lidar measurement is in good agreement with an in-situ CO2 measurement by a collocated NOAA flight. The average column CO2 density difference between the IPDA lidar measurements and the NOAA air samples is 1.48ppm in the flight altitudes of 3 to 6.1 km.

An airborne double-pulse 2-μm Integrated Path Differential Absorption (IPDA) lidar has been developed at NASA LaRC for measuring atmospheric CO2. IPDA was validated using NASA B-200 aircraft over land and ocean under different conditions. IPDA evaluation for land vegetation returns, during full day background conditions, are presented. IPDA CO2 measurements compare well with model results driven from on-board insitu sensor data. These results also indicate that CO2 measurement bias is consistent with that from ocean surface returns.

An advanced airborne triple-pulse 2-μm integrated path differential absorption (IPDA) lidar is under development at NASA Langley Research Center that targets both carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H2O) measurements simultaneously and independently. This lidar is an upgrade to the successfully demonstrated CO2 2-μm double-pulse IPDA. Upgrades include high-energy, highrepetition rate 2-μm triple-pulse laser transmitter, innovative wavelength control and advanced HgCdTe (MCT) electron-initiated avalanche photodiode detection system. Ground testing and airborne validation plans are presented.

A 2 [micro]m wavelength, 90 mJ, 5 Hz pulsed Ho laser is described with wavelength control to precisely tune and lock the wavelength at a desired offset up to 2.9 GHz from the center of a C[O.sub.2] absorption line. Once detuned from the line center the laser wavelength is actively locked to keep the wavelength within 1.9 MHz standard deviation about the setpoint. This wavelength control allows optimization of the optical depth for a differential absorption lidar (DIAL) measuring atmospheric C[O.sub.2] concentrations. The laser transmitter has been coupled with a coherent heterodyne receiver for measurements of C[O.sub.2] concentration using aerosol backscatter; wind and aerosols are also measured with the same lidar and provide useful additional information on atmospheric structure. Range-resolved C[O.sub.2] measurements were made with < 2.4% standard deviation using 500 m range bins and 6.7 min (1000 pulse pairs) integration time. Measurement of a horizontal column showed a precision of the C[O.sub.2] concentration to < 0.7% standard deviation using a 30 min (4500 pulse pairs) integration time, and comparison with a collocated in situ sensor showed the DIAL to measure the same trend of a diurnal variation and to detect shorter time scale C[O.sub.2] perturbations. For vertical column measurements the lidar was setup at the WLEF tall tower site in Wisconsin to provide meteorological profiles and to compare the DIAL measurements with the in situ sensors distributed on the tower up to 396 m height. Assuming the DIAL column measurement extending from 153 m altitude to 1353 m altitude should agree with the tower in situ sensor at 396 m altitude, there was a 7.9 ppm rms difference between the DIAL and the in situ sensor using a 30 min rolling average on the DIAL measurement. OCIS codes: 280.1910, 140.0140, 280.0280, 010.3640, 010.3920, 010.7030.

The two-micron wavelength is suitable for monitoring atmospheric water vapor and carbon dioxide, the two most dominant greenhouse gases. Recent advances in 2-μm laser technology paved the way for constructing state-of-the-art lidar transmitters for active remote sensing applications. In this paper, a new triple-pulsed 2-μm integrated path differential absorption lidar is presented. This lidar is capable of measuring either two species or single specie with two different weighting functions, simultaneously and independently. Development of this instrument is conducted at NASA Langley Research Center. Instrument scaling for projected future space missions will be discussed.

An advanced double-pulse 2-μm integrated path differential absorption lidar has been developed at NASA Langley Research Center for measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide. The instrument utilizes a state-of-the-art 2-μm laser transmitter with tunable on-line wavelength and advanced receiver. Instrument modeling and airborne simulations are presented in this paper. Focusing on random errors, results demonstrate instrument capabilities of performing precise carbon dioxide differential optical depth measurement with less than 3% random error for single-shot operation up to 11 km altitude. This study is useful for defining CO2 measurement weighting function for adaptive targeting, instrument setting, validation and sensitivity trade-offs.

An airborne 2-micron double-pulsed Integrated Path Differential Absorption (IPDA) lidar has been developed for atmospheric CO2 measurements. This new instrument has been flown in spring of 2014 for a total of ten flights with 27 flight hours. This IPDA lidar provides high precision measurement capability by unambiguously eliminating contamination from aerosols and clouds that can bias the results.

A differential absorption lidar has been built to measure C[O.sub.2] concentration in the atmosphere. The transmitter is a pulsed single-frequency Ho:Tm:YLF laser at a 2.05-[micro]m wavelength. A coherent heterodyne receiver was used to achieve sensitive detection, with the additional capability for wind profiling by a Doppler technique. Signal processing includes an algorithm for power measurement of a heterodyne signal. Results show a precision of the C[O.sub.2] concentration measurement of 1%-2% 1[sigma] standard deviation over column lengths ranging from 1.2 to 2.8 km by an average of 1000 pulse pairs. A preliminary assessment of instrument sensitivity was made with an 8-h-long measurement set, along with correlative measurements with an in situ sensor, to determine that a C[O.sub.2] trend could be detected. OCIS codes: 280.0280, 280.1910, 140.0140, 140.3580.

We demonstrate wavelength control of a single-frequency diode-pumped Ho:Tm:YLF laser by referencing its wavelength to an absorption line of carbon dioxide. We accomplish this wavelength control by injection seeding with a cw Ho:Tm:YLF laser that can be tuned over or stabilized to carbon dioxide or water vapor lines. We show that the pulsed laser can be scanned precisely over an absorption line of carbon dioxide by scanning the injection seed laser wavelength. We locked the pulsed laser to within 18.5 MHz of the absorption line center by stabilizing the injection seed on the line center. The single-frequency pulsed output, intended for use as a transmitter for differential absorption lidar detection of atmospheric carbon dioxide and water vapor and for coherent detection of wind, is 100 mJ per pulse at a 5-Hz repetition rate. OCIS codes: 140.3580, 280.3640, 280.1910.

The first airborne wind measurements of a pulsed, 2- μm solid-state, high-energy, wind-profiling lidar system for airborne measurements are presented. The laser pulse energy is the highest to date in an eye-safe airborne wind lidar system. This energy, the 10-Hz laser pulse rate, the 15-cm receiver diameter, and dual-balanced coherent detection together have the potential to provide much-improved lidar sensitivity to low aerosol backscatter levels compared to earlier airborne-pulsed coherent lidar wind systems. Problems with a laser-burned telescope secondary mirror prevented a full demonstration of the lidar's capability, but the hardware, algorithms, and software were nevertheless all validated. A lidar description, relevant theory, and preliminary results of flight measurements are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field experiments were conducted to test and evaluate the initial atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) measurement capability of airborne, high-energy, double-pulsed, 2-μm integrated path differential absorption (IPDA) lidar. This IPDA was designed, integrated, and operated at the NASA Langley Research Center on-board the NASA B-200 aircraft. The IPDA was tuned to the CO 2 strong absorption line at 2050.9670 nm, which is the optimum for lower tropospheric weighted column measurements. Flights were conducted over land and ocean under different conditions. The first validation experiments of the IPDA for atmospheric CO 2 remote sensing, focusing on low surface reflectivity oceanic surface returns during full day background conditions, are presented. In these experiments, the IPDA measurements were validated by comparison to airborne flask air-sampling measurements conducted by the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory. IPDA performance modeling was conducted to evaluate measurement sensitivity and bias errors. The IPDA signals and their variation with altitude compare well with predicted model results. In addition, off-off-line testing was conducted, with fixed instrument settings, to evaluate the IPDA systematic and random errors. Analysis shows an altitude-independent differential optical depth offset of 0.0769. Optical depth measurement uncertainty of 0.0918 compares well with the predicted value of 0.0761. IPDA CO 2 column measurement compares well with model-driven, near-simultaneous air-sampling measurements from the NOAA aircraft at different altitudes. With a 10-s shot average, CO 2 differential optical depth measurement of 1.0054±0.0103 was retrieved from a 6-km altitude and a 4-GHz on-line operation. As compared to CO 2 weighted-average column dry-air volume mixing ratio of 404.08 ppm, derived from air sampling, IPDA measurement resulted in a value of 405.22±4.15  ppm with 1.02% uncertainty and 0.28% additional bias. Sensitivity analysis of environmental systematic errors correlates the additional bias to water vapor. IPDA ranging resulted in a measurement uncertainty of <3  m.

Double-pulsed 2-μm integrated path differential absorption (IPDA) lidar is well suited for atmospheric CO 2 remote sensing. The IPDA lidar technique relies on wavelength differentiation between strong and weak absorbing features of the gas normalized to the transmitted energy. In the double-pulse case, each shot of the transmitter produces two successive laser pulses separated by a short interval. Calibration of the transmitted pulse energies is required for accurate CO 2 measurement. Design and calibration of a 2-μm double-pulse laser energy monitor is presented. The design is based on an InGaAs pin quantum detector. A high-speed photoelectromagnetic quantum detector was used for laser-pulse profile verification. Both quantum detectors were calibrated using a reference pyroelectric thermal detector. Calibration included comparing the three detection technologies in the single-pulsed mode, then comparing the quantum detectors in the double-pulsed mode. In addition, a self-calibration feature of the 2-μm IPDA lidar is presented. This feature allows one to monitor the transmitted laser energy, through residual scattering, with a single detection channel. This reduces the CO 2 measurement uncertainty. IPDA lidar ground validation for CO 2 measurement is presented for both calibrated energy monitor and self-calibration options. The calibrated energy monitor resulted in a lower CO 2 measurement bias, while self-calibration resulted in a better CO 2 temporal profiling when compared to the in situ sensor.

We demonstrate a single-frequency gain-switched Ho-doped fiber laser based on heavily doped silicate glass fiber fabricated in-house. A Q-switched Tm-doped fiber laser at 1.95 μm was used to gain-switch the Ho-doped fiber laser via in-band pumping. Output power of the single-frequency gain-switched pulses has been amplified in a cladding-pumped Tm-Ho-codoped fiber amplifier with 1.2 m active fiber pumped at 803 nm. Two different nonlinear effects, i.e., modulation instability and stimulated Brillouin scattering, could be seen in the 10 μm-core fiber amplifier when the peak power exceeds 3 kW. The single-frequency gain-switched fiber laser was operated at 2.05 μm, a popular laser wavelength for Doppler lidar application. This is the first demonstration of this kind of fiber laser.

A fully conductively cooled and diode-pumped linear Ho:Tm:LuLiF laser oscillator can generate more than 1 J normal mode pulses at a 10 Hz pulse repetition rate where heat pipes are used for cooling pump diodes and laser crystal. As an amplifier, it can amplify the 80 mJ/180 ns pulses into 400 mJ pulses before the appearance of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). The ASE threshold is about 5.6 J with a 40 mm long and side-polished laser crystal. For a 5 mJ input pulse and 5.6 J pump pulse, the double-pass gain exceeds 22.5. If the lateral surface of the laser crystal is fine ground, the ASE threshold can rise to higher than 8 J, but the efficiency will be lower due to large pump diffusion.

We report a unique all fiber-based single-frequency Q-switched laser in a monolithic master oscillator power amplifier configuration at ~1920 nm by using highly Tm-doped germanate fibers for the first time. The actively Q-switched fiber laser seed was achieved by using a piezo to press the fiber in the fiber Bragg grating cavity and modulate the fiber birefringence, enabling Q-switching with pulse width and repetition rate tunability. A single-mode polarization maintaining large core 25 μm highly Tm-doped germanate fiber was used in the power amplifier stage. For 80 ns pulses with 20 kHz repetition rate, we achieved 220 μJ pulse energy, which corresponds to a peak power of 2.75 kW with transform-limited linewidth.

Efficient operation of diode-pumped single-frequency fiber lasers at wavelengths from 1740 to 2017 nm has been demonstrated by using a very short piece of newly developed single-mode active fiber, i.e., heavily thulium-doped germanate glass fiber. At 1893 nm, the single-frequency fiber laser has a pump threshold of 30 mW, a slope efficiency of 35%, and maximum output power of 50 mW with respect to the launched power of single-mode pump diodes at 805 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest lasing efficiency achieved in single-frequency fiber lasers operating near 2 micro m. Frequency noise of the single-frequency fiber laser at 1893 nm has been characterized and compared with that of single-frequency fiber lasers at 1 and 1.55 micro m.

Q-switched output of 1.1 J/pulse at a 2.053 microm wavelength has been achieved in a diode-pumped Ho: Tm: LuLF laser with a side-pumped rod configuration in a master-oscillator-power-amplifier (MOPA) architecture. This is the first time to our knowledge that a 2 microm laser has broken the joule per pulse barrier for Q-switched operation. The total system efficiency reaches 5% and 6.2% for single- and double-pulse operation, respectively. The system produces an excellent 1.4 times transform-limited beam quality.

An efficient double-pulse Ho:Tm:YLF 2-microm laser with total Q-switched output energy of 600 mJ has been demonstrated. A double-pulse pair is obtained per pump pulse. By operation of the laser in a double-pulse format, the residual energy stored among the Tm ions is transferred to the Ho atoms that were de-excited by the extraction of the first Q-switched pulse. Thus, the overall laser efficiency is increased by 61%.