MESA PHOTONICS LLC — Department of Energy STTR Phase I: 25b

Description

Detailed accurate data on temperature variations and water vapor concentration distributions are needed for weather and climate forecasting. Water vapor is particularly important for predicting precipitation amounts from storms. Measurements are needed from the ground to the top of the troposphere at about 10 km altitude. Existing ground-based instruments often have measurement uncertainties due to the complexities of data analysis. Ground-based laser heterodyne radiometers (LHR) will be developed for quantitative measurements of water vapor and oxygen (O2) optical absorbances in transmitted sunlight. Oxygen column retrievals are simplified because O2 concentrations are nearly invariant throughout the troposphere. This simplifies temperature and pressure retrievals that can then be used to improve the quality of the H2O retrievals. Determine the optimum wavelength range or ranges for simultaneous LHR of water vapor and O2. Verify experimentally the usefulness of the wavelength range or ranges. Begin retrieval calculations for tropospheric temperature and moisture profiles. Instruments for improved atmospheric analysis that can lead to better weather forecasting and understanding of complicated climate processes. Our technology is a lower-cost method for validating data from more complicated and expensive instruments that generate data complicated by multiple scattering and distributed emission volumes.