A solid state laser development program for remote atmospheric sensors

The current status of NASA Langley efforts to develop solid-state lasers for use in the Lidar Atmospheric Sounder and Altimeter (LASA) of the Space Station Earth Observing System is surveyed. The types of observations to be performed with LASA are listed, and the parameters of presently available lasers are compared with the LASA baseline goals: 2 kW output power; 500 kg weight; tunability to 727, 760, and 943 nm to within 500 fm; high spectral purity; efficiency greater than 3 percent; energy about 1 J/pulse, pulse length less than 100 nsec, and lifetime greater than 108 shots. The use of sensitized flashlamp-pumped laser materials or diode-laser pumping to improve performance is discussed, and particular attention is given to materials research on Ti:sapphire lasers, studies of higher-efficiency detectors, and the LASE and LITE airborne lidar and DIAL experiments.