Events
National Capital Section of the Optical Society of America with the IEEE Photonics Society Wash/NVA Chapter Monthly Meeting
Managed by Optica
19 September 2013
"LASER AND ELECTRO-OPTICS RESEARCH AT NASA GSFC" Dr. Michael Krainak NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center ABSTRACT We review recent NASA laser instrument mission results including the Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) and the Lunar Orbiting Laser Altimeter (LOLA). Future Earth science laser missions currently being developed by NASA included the Ice Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) scheduled for launch in 2016; the Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) mission, which will be the first laser spectroscopy from space with the objective to profile aerosol and cloud for climate and water cycle; ocean color for open ocean biogeochemistry. The Lidar Surface Topography (LIST) mission is to globally map the topography of the Earth's solid surface with 5 m spatial resolution and 10 cm vertical precision, as well as the height of overlying covers of vegetation, water, snow, and ice. The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will demonstrate optical communications relay services between a geosynchronous satellite and Earth over an extended period, and thereby gain the knowledge and experience base that will enable NASA to design, procure, and operate cost-effective future optical communications systems and relay networks. Additional research efforts include a sodium lidar for heliophysics and a 3D laser vision system for satellite robotic reservicing. SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY Dr. Michael Krainak received his BS in electrical engineering from Catholic University and MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. He started his career as a telephone switch office field engineer for AT&T Western Electric. He worked for ten years at the National Security Agency in signal processing, Fourier optics, and microelectronic circuit design. For the past twenty-two years he has worked at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on inter-satellite laser communications and lidar. Dr. Krainak is presently the Head of the Laser and Electro-Optics Branch at NASA-GSFC.