Lidar and Laser Technology for NASA’S Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) Payload on The International Space Station (JEM-EF)

Abstract

This paper describes the ISS lidar technology provided by Fibertek, Inc. in support of the NASA GSFC CATS mission and provides an assessment of the in-flight systems performance and lessons learned. During February the systems successfully operated in space for more than 300 hours using 25 W average power lasers and photon counting of aerosol atmospheric returns.