Abstract

Gardner has proposed a technique for measuring both atmospheric pressure [1] and ocean surface roughness [2] by using a short pulse two-color laser altimeter. Two sets of airborne altimeter measurements have been performed using this technique, both of which utilized < 100 psec wide modelocked laser pulses. The impulse response of the initial PMT-based altimeter receiver was 800 psec [3], while that of the later streak camera-based receiver was 85 psec [4]. In the first airborne tests, the atmospheric pressure accuracies of the high resolution altimeter were 3-7 mbar [4].

© 1987 Optical Society of America