Publications & Presentations

Flight Demonstration of a Laser Hygrometer Payload for the ScanEagle UAS

D. Sonnenfroh, S-J. Chen, and M. Zondlo
Paper A02107, Unmanned Systems in Atmospheric Research I
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting (Virtual)
7 December, 2020

  • Detailed cloud macro and microphysical properties remain a challenging measurement goal.
  • Enhanced knowledge of these properties is needed to increase understanding of various cloud processes, including entrainment and droplet growth, that are important in both weather
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forecasting and climate change.
  • Water vapor gradients affects droplet growth rates and, together with temperature, are needed for determination of supersaturation values.
  • High sensitivity, high accuracy measurements of water vapor and temperature are needed at high spatial resolution, and therefore at high measurement rate
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    Acknowledgement
    This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of DOE Chicago Ops, un de r Award Number(s) DE SC0015104.
    Disclaimer:
    This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United St ate s Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information , apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights.
    Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise do es not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect tho se of the United States Government or any agency thereof.

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    Scanning, standoff laser-based leak imaging and quantification

    Nicholas F. Aubut, Richard T. Wainner, Matthew C. Laderer, Paul D. Wehnert, and James Rutherford
    27th World Gas Conference, June 25-29, 2018, Washington, DC

    This paper reports a novel quantitative methane plume imaging tool, based on active near-infrared backscatter laser sensing technology. It integrates a laser sensor with a video camera in a future handheld

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    package to create a highly sensitive imager that also quantifies emission rate. It provides colorized quantified images of path-integrated methane concentration independent of background. The images depict methane plumes overlaid on a visible camera image of the background. This new tool addresses the need for reliable, robust, low-cost sensors to detect, image, and quantify fugitive methane emissions, enabling operators to prioritize repairs. We built a prototype platform that demonstrated quantitative performance in the laboratory and municipal field tests. Based on measured signal-to-noise ratios, it can quantify emissions as small as 0.25 scfh in seconds.

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    Development of the Virtual Source Training Toolkit for physically accurate simulation of the response of handheld radiation detectors

    Development of the Virtual Source Training Toolkit for physically accurate simulation of the response of handheld radiation detectors
    John Wright, Kirill Shokhirev, Eric Rappeport, Daniel Brown and Bogdan R. Cosofret
    SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing, Orlando, FL, 15 - 19 April 2018

    Law enforcement officers and public safety personnel are a critical component of the Global Nuclear Detection Architecture, and would benefit from additional opportunities to train for this mission in realistic threat scenarios. Physical Sciences Inc.

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    (PSI) is developing a Virtual Source Training Toolkit (VSTT) system capable of reproducing the response of handheld radiation detectors to a virtual source in a complex occlusion and shielding environment. The toolkit will allow additional low-cost training opportunities for these officers inside operationally relevant public areas in order to reduce the time required to detect and localize a realistic radiological threat.

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    Copyright © 2018 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. This paper was presented at SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing, Orlando, FL, 15 - 19 April 2018 and is made available as an electronic reprint (preprint) with permission of SPIE. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic or multiple reproduction, distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of the paper are prohibited.

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    Active standoff chemical identification detector

    Active standoff chemical identification detector
    Jay P. Giblin*, Julia R. Dupuis, John P. Dixon, Joel M. Hensley, David J. Mansur, and William J. Marinelli
    SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing, Orlando, FL, 15 - 19 April 2018

    An active, standoff, all-phase chemical detection capability has been developed under IARPA’s SILMARILS program. The detection platform utilizes reflectance spectroscopy in the longwave infrared coupled with an automated detection algorithm that implements physics-based reflectance models for planar chemical films, particulate in the solid and liquid phase, and vapors.

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    Target chemicals include chemical warfare agents, toxic industrial chemicals, and explosives. The platform employs broadband Fabry-Perot quantum cascade lasers with a spectrally selective detector to interrogate target surfaces at tens of meter standoff. A statistical F-test in a noise whitened space is used for detection and discrimination over a large target spectral library in high clutter environments. The capability is described with an emphasis on the physical reflectance models used to predict spectral reflectivity signatures as a function of surface contaminant presentation and loading. Developmental test results from a breadboard version of the detector platform are presented. Specifically, solid and liquid surface contaminants were detected and identified from a library of 325 compounds down to 30 μg/cm2 surface loading at a 5 m standoff. Vapor detection was demonstrated via topographic backscatter.

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    Copyright © 2018 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. This paper was presented at SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing, Orlando, FL, 15 - 19 April 2018 and is made available as an electronic reprint (preprint) with permission of SPIE. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic or multiple reproduction, distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of the paper are prohibited.

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    Compact Lidar for Continuous Monitoring of Atmospheric Extinction

    Compact Lidar for Continuous Monitoring of Atmospheric Extinction
    David M. Sonnenfroh*, Robert J. Minelli, Joseph A.K. Goodwin, and W. Terry Rawlins
    SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing, Orlando, FL, 15 - 19 April 2018

    Physical Sciences Inc. is developing an advanced, compact lidar capable of continuous mapping of atmospheric extinction to provide environmental situational awareness for high energy laser weapon operations by the Navy.

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    The lidar uses a MicroPulse Lidar architecture and combines a solid state Nd:YLF laser operating at 1 micron with photon counting detectors and advanced aerosol retrieval algorithms. We report on the design of the engineering prototype and provide a summary of the system performance demonstrated during the Comprehensive Atmospheric Boundary Layer Extinction / Turbulence Refinement eXperiment conducted at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in June, 2017.

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    Copyright © 2018 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. This paper was presented at SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing, Orlando, FL, 15 - 19 April 2018 and is made available as an electronic reprint (preprint) with permission of SPIE. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic or multiple reproduction, distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of the paper are prohibited.

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    Standoff Detection from Diffusely Scattering Surfaces using Dual Quantum Cascade Laser Comb Spectroscopy

    Standoff Detection from Diffusely Scattering Surfaces using Dual Quantum Cascade Laser Comb Spectroscopy
    Joel M. Hensley, Justin M. Brown, Mark G. Allen, Markus Geiser, Pitt Allmendinger, Markus Mangold, Andreas Hugi, Pierre Jouy, and Jérôme Faist
    SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing Conference, Orlando, FL, April 15-19, 2018

    Designed dispersion compensated quantum cascade OFC sources at 8 and 10mm

    At 8mm demonstrated ~1W cw average power (per laser) at room temperature with comb ~80 cm-1 comb width

    Demonstrated surface mass loading sensitivity of few mg/cm2 at standoff distances of 0.3 and 1 meter from diffuse surfaces

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    Primary improvement needed: increased bandwidth
    –150 cm-1 possible with improve dispersion control
    –beyond 150 cm-1, will also require faster detectors or better matching between individual comb spacing

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    Acknowledgement of Support and Disclaimer
    This material is based upon work supported by the Defense Advanced research Projects Agency (DARPA) under Contract Number W31P4Q 15 C 0083. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of DARPA Program Office

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