Design of a direct-detection Doppler wind lidar for spaceflight

Atmospheric wind speed profiling from an Earth-orbiting satellite with an active lidar probe is considered. 'Direct detection' of the Doppler shift, i.e., with optical interferometry, can employ the UV, and thus can be based on Rayleigh backscatter, permitting measurements without dependence on atmospheric aerosol content. Two direct detection methods, 'edge technique' and 'fringe imaging', are compared here for measurement sensitivity in the signal shot noise limit. There is no significant difference; both are capable, at best, of measurement statistical uncertainty about 2 to 4 times the Cramer-Rao limit of a perfect, lossless receiver.

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