Overview of the first Multicenter Airborne Coherent Atmospheric Wind Sensor (MACAWS) experiment: conversion of a ground-based lidar for airborne applications

The first Multi center Airborne Coherent Atmospheric Wind Sensor (MACAWS) field experiment demonstrated an airborne high energy TEA CO2 Doppler lidar system for measurement of atmospheric wind fields and aerosol structure. The system was deployed on the NASA DC-8 during September 1995 in a series of checkout flights to observe several important atmospheric phenomena, including upper level winds in a Pacific hurricane, marine boundary layer winds, cirrus cloud properties, and land-sea breeze structure. The instrument, with its capability to measure 3D winds and backscatter fields, promises to be a valuable tool for climate and global change, severe weather, and air quality research. In this paper, we describe the airborne instrument, assess its performance, discuss future improvements, and show some preliminary results from the September experiments.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.