Real Time Remote Measurement Of Wind Speed By Laser Back Scattered Single Particle Correlation Techniques

The possibility of conducting remote wind measurements in real time using only cw laser equipment located on the ground at a given point is very attractive and may offer wide-spread applications in atmospheric research and operations. This research program therefore investigated laser techniques for remote sensing of atmospheric flow. It emphasized the development of methods for single-ended remote wind speed measurement. These methods provide high spatial resolution and potentially long range with low laser power and minimum measurement time. Realistic performance criteria was formulated in order to understand the potential of a given technique and field wind measurements were performed to evaluate its feasibility and usefulness. The existing laser Doppler velocimeter was investigated in this way, and it was found to be out-performed, under practical conditions, by a new laser time-of-flight velocimeter discovered during the course of this program. (Author).