Optical sensors for airborne and ground-based applications are the focus of Ophir’s development and production efforts.

Sensors use light to interrogate the atmosphere, yielding range-resolved parameters, including:

• water content	• aerosol concentration and particle size
• velocity	• aerosol distribution in the atmosphere
• temperature	• visibility monitoring
• pressure	• trace gas concentration

Atmospheric sensing challenges Ophir is addressing are

• optical air data systems development
• contrail detection systems
• turbulence detection for air vehicles
• low probability of intercept (LPI) three-dimensional imaging
• winds, turbulence and temperature measurements for the atmospheric boundary layer
• vegetation canopy lidar for airborne biomass measurement

Lidar development includes three aspects of Ophir’s expertise

• active sensing—incoherent lidar
• light scattering from aerosols and molecules—Rayleigh/Mie lidar
• light delivery method—Random Modulated Continuous Wave laser radar  (RMCW)