One aspect of Ophir’s lidar expertise is the use of Rayleigh and Mie light scattering returns.

Rayleigh/Mie laser radar (lidar) is ideal for innovative avionics and ground-based instruments. It is particularly useful in measuring air data in clear air environments found at aircraft operational altitudes.

Rayleigh/Mie lidar relies on light interaction with the constituents of the atmosphere— i.e. scattering from both atmospheric aerosols (Mie scattering) and atmospheric gas molecules (Rayleigh scattering).

• few aerosols are present at aircraft operational altitudes, so our ability to collect light returns from scatter off of the air molecules present (Rayleigh scattering) is critical to making atmospheric measurements
• temperature and pressure measurements for ground-based and airborne applications also benefit from the ability to measure light scattering off of molecules