Pulsed coherent fiber lidar transceiver for aircraft in-flight turbulence and wake-vortex hazard detection

We report on the development of a fiber-optic pulsed coherent lidar transceiver for wind-velocity and aircraft wake-vortex hazard detection. The all-fiber 1.5 mu m transmitter provides up to 560 mu J energy at 25 kHz with 800 ns pulse width (pump limited). Performance simulations indicate wake-vortex hazard signature detection up to similar to 2.5km range with a receiver sensitivity of similar to 2 fW (SNR=6), suited for an aircraft landing scenario. Furthermore, the transceiver is implemented using high-speed FPGA based control and digital-signal-processing, enabling its use as a flexible pulse-format multi-function in-flight lidar sensor. We present the latest laboratory results and preliminary testing of this pulsed coherent lidar transceiver, along with the lidar performance simulation of wake-vortex eddy models.