Systems, Methods and Apparatus for Measuring Atmospheric Turbulence

Abstract

Systems, methods and apparatus to profile atmospheric turbulence. The apparatus includes a telescope having a telescope optical axis and a laser to generate a plurality of pulses at a pulse repetition rate. A laser beam mechanism, coupled to the laser, has a laser optical axis substantially coincident with the telescope optical axis, such that the plurality of pulses forms a collimated laser beam propagating along the telescope optical axis. The apparatus also includes at least one shutter coupled to the telescope and one or more wavefront sensors, coupled to the shutter, which acts as a range gate for the wavefront sensor. A controller is coupled to the laser and the shutter to coordinate operation of the shutter with a pulse of the plurality of pulses.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.