Lidar and Electro-Optics for Atmospheric Hazard Sensing and Mitigation

This paper provides an overview of the research and development efforts of the Lidar and Electro-Optics element of NASA's Aviation Safety Program. This element is seeking to improve the understanding of the atmospheric environments encountered by aviation and to provide enhanced situation awareness for atmospheric hazards. The improved understanding of atmospheric conditions is specifically to develop sensor signatures for atmospheric hazards. The current emphasis is on kinetic air hazards such as turbulence, aircraft wake vortices, mountain rotors, and windshear. Additional efforts are underway to identify and quantify the hazards arising from multi-phase atmospheric conditions including liquid and solid hydrometeors and volcanic ash. When the multi-phase conditions act as obscurants that result in reduced visual awareness, the element seeks to mitigate the hazards associated with these diminished visual environments. The overall purpose of these efforts is to enable safety improvements for air transport class and business jet class aircraft as the transition to the Next Generation Air Transportation System occurs. I. Introduction HE Atmospheric Environment Safety Technologies (AEST) Project is one of the three projects that make up the NASA Aviation Safety Program. It investigates sources of risk and provides technology needed to help ensure safe flight in and around atmospheric hazards. This is done in the context of the current National Air Transportation System and with the goal of maintaining or increasing safety as the transition to the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) 1 occurs. The AEST Project is structured as three sub-projects. Each of these subprojects is implemented through technical work elements. The Lidar and Electro-Optic (LEO) Element is part of the Atmospheric Hazard Sensing and Mitigation (AHSM) Sub-Project. The approach of the LEO Element is to explore the capabilities of evolving sensor technologies to monitor the atmospheric environment from aircraft and to detect and assess atmospheric hazards so as to allow avoidance or mitigation of those hazards. The goal is to enable future avionics systems with multi-hazard sensing and mitigation capabilities that will provide improved safety of flight for air transport class aircraft as well as for smaller aircraft such as those in the business jet class. The LEO Element is investigating both passive and active electro-optic sensor systems for sensing and assessing atmospheric hazards. This involves both determining the sensor signature for a given pair of atmospheric hazard and sensor type and evaluating whether the current state of technology for that sensor type allows quantitative measurement of the sensor signature. Part of this evaluation explores the signal-to-noise ratio required by the sensor to minimize both false positives and false negatives for hazard assessment. In many cases, the atmospheric conditions and structures that create hazards to aviation are not fully understood and LEO seeks partners in other NASA programs, in other government programs, in industry, and in academia to cost-effectively develop these understandings in a timely fashion. Because of the emphasis on evolving technologies, LEO efforts are connected to the innovative technology efforts being done under the NASA Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program and through cooperative research agreements developed competitively through the NASA Research Announcement (NRA) process.