In the photo, Messrs. Leroy F. Matthews (left) and Frank J. Novak (Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Co.) are preparing the Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment (LASE) Instrument for integration into a NASA/ER-2 aircraft for a field mission. LASE is the first fully- engineered, autonomous differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) System for the measurement of water vapor, aerosol and cloud in the troposphere. LASE uses a double-pulsed Ti:Sapphire laser for the transmitter with a 30 ns pulse length and 150 mJ/pulse. The laser beam is seeded to operate on a selected water vapor absorption line in the 815-nm region using a laser diode and an onboard absorption reference cell. A 40 cm diameter telescope collects the backscattered signals and directs them onto two detectors. LASE collects DIAL data at 5 Hz while flying at altitudes from 16-21 km. LASE was designed to operate autonomously within the environment and physical constraints of the ER-2 aircraft and to make water vapor profile measurements across the troposphere with accuracy having less than 6% of error. No other instrument can provide the spatial coverage and accuracy of LASE. Water vapor is the most radiative active gas in the troposphere, and the lack of understanding about its distribution provides one of the largest uncertainties in modeling climate change. LASE has demonstrated the necessary potential in providing high resolution water vapor measurements that can advance the studies of tropospheric water vapor distributions. LASE has flown 19 times during the development of the instrument and the validation of the science data. A joint international field mission was completed in the summer of 1996; adding 9 more successful flights. The LASE Instrument is being adapted to other aircraft platforms to support planned missions and to increase its utility.
