2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program
2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program
2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program
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Figure 34:<br />
SIMPL’s shared optical bench (grey) and off-axis parabola<br />
telescope (blue) maintains alignment between the transmit beams<br />
and the receiver.<br />
The ice cover results, providing an analog for sea<br />
ice, demonstrated the unique capabilities achieved by<br />
SIMPL. Depolarization data at both near-infrared<br />
and visible wavelengths differentiated open water<br />
leads, young translucent ice, older more granular<br />
ice and snow-covered ice, important differentiators<br />
for measuring sea ice free-board (height above<br />
water), which is an indicator of ice thickness. The<br />
high-precision single photon ranging differentiated<br />
smooth ice, roughened ice and compression<br />
ridges related to sea ice formation processes. The<br />
SIMPL demonstration of these capabilities is<br />
particularly important to the ICESat-2 mission<br />
now in formulation. ICESat-2, scheduled for a<br />
2015 launch, will use multi-beam, micropulse single<br />
photon ranging, either at visible or near-infrared<br />
wavelengths. ICESat-2, follow-on to the ICESat<br />
mission, has a focus on monitoring changes in ice<br />
sheet elevation and sea ice freeboard. SIMPL is<br />
serving as a pathfinder for ICESat-2 technology<br />
development.<br />
Figure 35:<br />
SIMPL’s receiver side.<br />
Figure 36:<br />
SIMPL’s transmitter side.<br />
38