Lidar serves in a number of invaluable applications, including construction, agriculture, mining, and robotics, but one of its most useful functions is gathering meteorological data. Instead of sending physical instruments like a weather balloon into the troposphere, lidar can detect weather changes closer to ground level. This technology can retrieve wind and temperature data by detecting backscatter light reflected by airborne particulates. Lidar ceilometers can also measure cloud layer height by collecting reflected light off cloud layers as high as 25,000 feet above the ground.
In early 2017, the United States Air Force wished to leverage this technology to gather weather data within 15,000 feet above ground level (AGL), where many of their operations take place. They had previously employed weather balloons and portable weather stations to gather key atmospheric data, but each system had their faults. The size and ungainliness of these balloons and weather stations were not suitable for covert operations, and mission planners found it difficult keeping the weather balloons’ altitude to stay within the troposphere.
Intellisense Systems began development on a ground-based, short-range, portable remote weather monitoring system that employed lidar to collect environmental data. After a year of development, the resulting device combined three lidar modules emitting lasers at three wavelengths (such as 1064 nm, 820 nm, and 355 nm) alongside an on-board power management system, signal processing hardware, and software. The system’s design incorporated a single receiver telescope that utilized both ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) wavelength ranges, making it more compact than standard multi-lidar systems. As a result, all these components could be packaged into a single unit that was small enough to fit inside a backpack.
Thanks to its innovative use of multiple lidar modules, this device could collect data on over a dozen weather parameters. A pulsed coherent Doppler lidar measured wind speed and direction, while the tracking of rotational Raman scattering of nitrogen and oxygen molecules enabled the system to track air temperature. Other weather parameters like dew point were calculated by the system’s software.
Intellisense’s work on this lidar-based weather-sensing solution proved to be vital in the final design of the Micro Weather Station (MWS®). The experience gained over the year-long development of this device led to the development the world’s smallest lidar-based ceilometer, which measures cloud layers up to 10,000 feet AGL. By collecting light scattered back into the ceilometer’s receiver, the system can swiftly collect and report cloud layers and cloud height. This data is invaluable for aviation, and its inclusion on the MWS enables the Air Force to take off and land in temporary airfields in some of the world’s most remote areas.
By leveraging lidar technology, Intellisense was able to deliver an all-in-one, autonomous solution that accurately collects over 20 weather parameters and can be remotely deployed in austere or denied locations. The MWS has replaced their previously solutions of ungainly weather balloons and weather stations, and it exceeds the Air Force’s requirements for ground-based, portable weather monitoring system. This application of compact lidar technology not only keeps operations covert and personnel out of the field, but it also provides the data that planners and pilots need to complete their missions safely and successfully.