CA1069725A
Expired / Lapsed
CA
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Clear air turbulence detector
Assignee: Department of National Defence
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Filing: 1977-05-17
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Granted: 1980-01-15
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Expires: 1997-05-17
Abstract
Abstract Abstract of the Disclosure Method and apparatus is described for remote detection of location and intensity of clear air turbulence through the collection and analyses of back scattered laser light from a region where clear air turbulence may exist. The interference pattern of the collected light is determined through an ultra high resolution spectroscope and is analyzed with an image dissector. Information from the image dissector relating to the spectrum of back scattered light is correlated with the standard spectrum representing absence of clear air turbulence at the distance in question. By providing apparatus having high sen-sitivity and fast response, a device suitable for use in aircraft to detect clear air turbulence is provided.
Inventors
- 👤 Elmer H. Hara
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
CA
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-28 13:44
CPC Classifications
G; G01; G01P; G01P5/00; G01P5/26; G01J; G01J3/00; G01J3/12; G01J3/26; G01S; G01S17/00; G01S17/88; G01S17/95; G01W; G01W1/00; G01W2001/003; Y; Y02; Y02A; Y02A90/00; Y02A90/10
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 14
Claim 1
Independent Claim
177 words
Apparatus for remote detection of location and intensity of clear air turbulence comprising: (a) a high peak power pulsed laser source to direct a laser beam at a volume where clear air turbulence may exist; (b) an ultra high resolution spectroscope to pick up and analyze the back scattered light from said laser for its interference pattern; (c) an image dissector to receive and dissect the interference pattern from said spectroscope; (d) a programmer unit to provide a gating pulse to said image dissector so that the intensity of back scatter from a volume of air at known distance is intermittently analyzed at the image dissector, the gating pulse being temporally coordinated with the laser pulse to select a suitable distance of observation; (e) a correlation computer receiving the output from said image dissector to correlate it with the standard spectrum representing an absence of clear air turbulence; (f) indicator means activated by said correlation computer when a significant departure from the standard spectrum exists, said indicator means showing the degree of departure from the standard spectrum.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
177 words
Apparatus for remote detection of location and intensity of clear air turbulence comprising: (a) a high peak power pulsed laser source to direct a laser beam at a volume where clear air turbulence may exist; (b) an ultra high resolution spectroscope to pick up and analyze the back scattered light from said laser for its interference pattern; (c) an image dissector to receive and dissect the interference pattern from said spectroscope; (d) a programmer unit to provide a gating pulse to said image dissector so that the intensity of back scatter from a volume of air at known distance is intermittently analyzed at the image dissector, the gating pulse being temporally coordinated with the laser pulse to select a suitable distance of observation; (e) a correlation computer receiving the output from said image dissector to correlate it with the standard spectrum representing an absence of clear air turbulence; (f) indicator means activated by said correlation computer when a significant departure from the standard spectrum exists, said indicator means showing the degree of departure from the standard spectrum.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
14 words
Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the laser source is a Nd+3 :YAIG laser.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
39 words
Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said ultra high resolution spectroscope is a Fabry-Perot interferometer which creates a circularly symmetric interference pattern, and wherein said image dissector is constructed for the spectroscopic analysis of a circularly symmetric interference pattern.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
22 words
Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image dissector is a photomultiplier controlled by the gating pulse generated in the programmer unit.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
26 words
Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the back scattered light from said laser beam is directed to a collecting telescope before it passes to said spectroscope.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
37 words
Apparatus according to claim 1, designed for fast response and use, for example, on jet aircraft, comprising a channel electron multiplier to improve the sensitivity of the image dissector, and having parallel data processing for fast response.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
15 words
Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein photon counting instrumen-tation is associated with the image dissector.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
73 words
Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the back scattered light from the laser beam is directed to a collecting telescope before passing to the spectroscope, said ultra high resolution spectroscope is a Fabry-Perot inter-ferometer which creates a circularly symmetric interference pattern and wherein said image dissector is constructed for the spectroscopic analysis of circu-larly symmetric interference patterns, and said image dissector is a photo-multiplier controlled by the programmer unit by said gating pulse.
Claim 10
Independent Claim
103 words
A method of detecting clear air turbulence comprising: (a) projecting a pulsed laser beam in a volume where clear air turbulence may exist; (b) collecting the back scattered light and creating an inter-ference pattern therefrom; (c) determining the distance of the volume from which the back scattered light is received by observing this light at a specific time after the transmission of a laser pulse; (d) analyzing the interference pattern of the collected light to determine its spectrum; (e) comparing the spectrum of the collected light with that of the known standard spectrum of light observed in the absence of clear air turbulence.
Claim 11
Independent Claim
103 words
A method of detecting clear air turbulence comprising: (a) projecting a pulsed laser beam in a volume where clear air turbulence may exist; (b) collecting the back scattered light and creating an inter-ference pattern therefrom; (c) determining the distance of the volume from which the back scattered light is received by observing this light at a specific time after the transmission of a laser pulse; (d) analyzing the interference pattern of the collected light to determine its spectrum; (e) comparing the spectrum of the collected light with that of the known standard spectrum of light observed in the absence of clear air turbulence.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
25 words
A method according to claim 9, wherein the variation in characteristic Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering associated with clear air turbulence is analyzed to detect clear air turbulence.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
25 words
A method according to claim 9, wherein the variation in characteristic Mie scattering associated with clear air turbu-lence is analyzed to detect clear air turbulence.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
24 words
A method according to claim 9, 10 or 11, wherein a cir-cularly symmetic interfernce pattern is obtained from the back scattered light and analyzed.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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