Visualization through common obscurants such as fog, rain, smoke, and haze represents a difficulty for many industries as well as the military. Within the next 20 years, the FAA expects air traffic operations to increase by 150-250%. To meet the demands of this high traffic environment, the Next Generation of Aviation Transportation Systems will require significantly improved hazard mitigation systems both for ground-level and in-flight hazards.

To this end, RL Associates, Inc. is developing a near-infrared (NIR) range-gated light detection and ranging (Lidar) system for characterization and mitigation of external obscurants and hazards. The system will be capable of imaging through a multitude of airborne and ground-level obscurants to identify targets, as well as providing an early warning of the severity of airborne hazards. While several different Lidar techniques are currently employed for airborne detection applications, the RLİAssociates, Inc. hazard detection and mitigation system is based upon the patented range-gated technique which has been successfully demonstrated in our FireLidar system.

RL Associates, Inc. is currently leading the industry in NIR (1.5 µm) active imaging systems and is drawing on their intimate knowledge of the technology in developing the NIR Lidar System. The system will be compact, lightweight, and will operate around 1.5ݵm, which is safe to the human eye.