Both stratospheric ozone and tropospheric ozone significantly affect lifeforms on Earth. They influence the environment, the atmosphere, and the global climate. The science community has spent tremendous efforts for the observation of ozone concentration in the atmosphere. Differential absorption Lidar (DIAL) technology has played a critical role in obtaining range-resolved ozone profiles in the atmosphere. In this proposal, we aim to design and build a compact, robust, reliable, efficient, anti-vibrational, and easy-to-maintain stratospheric ozone Lidar with AdValue Photonics’ unique single frequency tunable UV lasers at 308 nm and 355 nm based on all-fiberized master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA). The proposed Lidar will have the advantage of being suitable to various observational platforms with harsh environment and limited resources.
The 308 nm laser will be generated from the frequency mixing of 515 nm and 768 nm laser, which are the second harmonic generation of 1030 nm and 1535 nm laser, respectively. The 355 nm laser will be generated from the third harmonic from AdValue Photonics’ 1064 nm IR laser. The amplification of the above-mentioned 1030 nm, 1535 nm, and 1064 nm lasers will utilize AdValue Photonics’ proprietary silicate glass high peak power large mode field diameter (MFD) ytterbium (Yb) and erbium (Er) doped fiber amplifiers. Subsequently, we aim to implement an ozone lidar with such fiber-based light sources and obtain preliminary observation data. In Phase I of this SBIR project, we will focus on obtaining ozone observations at nighttime. It is well known that solar background radiation can cause Lidars to have low signal to noise ratio (SNR) at daytime. In Phase II, we plan to boost the power levels of the Lidar Transmitter, and possibly integrate etalons and interference filters in the Lidar Receiver to suppress the solar background to eventually obtain reasonable SNRs in the daytime for ozone observations.
The proposed compact, robust, reliable, efficient, and anti-vibrational stratospheric ozone Lidars favors NASA’s intention to be able to detect ozone concentration in field observations on a variety of carrying platforms. It meets the standard of being small size, weight, and power (SWaP) so that it can survive harsh environment and consume limited resources.
The proposed ozone Lidar will greatly increase the temporal and spatial coverage of ozone observations for the better of the environment, the atmosphere, and the global climate. Such demands have progressively become higher from the public community.