Development of an All-Solid-State Iron Resonance Lidar for Measurement of Temperature and Winds in the Upper Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere

We present recent developments of an all-solid-state Iron Resonance Wind Temperature Lidar system. Significant progress has been made on the development of the transmitter, the receiver and the etalon-based laser frequency monitoring system. In collaboration with a laser company, we were able to modify a commercial Nd:YAG laser to operate at 1116 nm, which will be tripled to 372 nm and serve as the lidar transmitter. A customized frame is being constructed to serve as the infrastructure of the receiver. Using a frequency-locked Rb laser, we demonstrate accurate monitoring of the laser’s frequency shifts with errors < 1 MHz, which allows us to make temperature and wind measurements with the lidar.