As part of the Space Station program, NASA is collaborating with the European and Japanese space agencies to develop an unmanned, polar orbiting Earth observing system (Eos) to begin operation in the mid 1990 s Eos will provide, global. measurements with active and passive remote sensors having greater resolution and accuracy than those currently in use. One of the proposed Eos facility instruments, the Lidar Atmospheric Sounder and Altimeter (LASA), is an active remote sensor that offers the possibility of measurements such as the global vertical distributions of aerosols, cloud top heights, atmospheric trace gasses such as water vapor and ozone, and atmospheric temperature and pressure; and the height of the planetary boundary layer (PBL). LASA employs the principles of optical radar (lidar), differential absorption 1 i da r (DIAL), and laser altimetry to provide these measurements with unprecedented resolution. This paper describes the conceptual design of LASA and also describes the conceptual design of one of the experiments proposed for the LASA facility the Eos Atmospheric Global Lidar Experiment (EAGLE).

Date Published: 7 December 1988
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 0972, Infrared Technology XIV, (7 December 1988); doi: 10.1117/12.948304

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0972:
Infrared Technology XIV
Irving J. Spiro, Editor(s)