Atmospheric Sensors

MZA produces industry-standard turbulence profilers for stand-alone operation for environmental measurements affecting laser and electro-optical systems:

Automated network archive & monitoring
Modeling and forecasting of propagation
Atmospheric imaging diagnostics
Optical communications performance
Include turbulence profiles in simulations
Enables custom ATMTools analysis

Modular Atmospheric Sensor Suite (MASS)

MZA atmospheric sensors are operated within the MASS software framework. Available sensor modes depend on the hardware configuration of the sensor. Sensor output is formatted for easy integration into MZA’s ATMTools, SHaRE, and WaveTrain modeling and simulation tools. MASS-enabled sensors with network connections allow on-line archiving of sensor measurements, automated download of weather forecasts, and remote web monitoring and data retrieval.

DELTA Imaging Sensor and Wx Machine Learning for Weather-Driven Turbulence Forecasting (DELTA-Wx)

DELTA turbulence measurements, coupled with meteorological observations, enable surface-level turbulence modeling with the MASS software. DELTA-Wx uses weather and turbulence with machine learning to enhance surface level turbulence modeling. The machine learning considers standard meteorological inputs (temperature, pressure, etc.) to compute the refractive-index structure parameter, C_n². DELTA-Wx’s machine learning algorithm processes thousands of meteorological and C_n² observations to model their observed physical relationship. When DELTA-Wx is deployed for 24/7 operation, a site-specific turbulence-forecasting model is automatically generated.

Specifications for DELTA Sensors:

Contact delta mza.com for price quote or more information.

PROPS Wavefront Sensing for High-Resolution Profiling

MZA’s Path-Resolved Optical Profiler System (PROPS) measures turbulence strength along a line of sight. Identical PROPS optical transceiver terminals are placed on each side of a propagation path which typically extends 5+ km. The unique geometry of PROPS enables resolution of turbulence distribution resulting from the surface features along that path. PROPS automatically collects, processes, catalogs, and reports these data through MASS. DELTA-PRO is the fusion of DELTA and PROPS sensing for dual-mode turbulence profiling operation. Like the DELTA-Wx, PROPS terminals include environmental enclosures and can be integrated with weather sensors and the Wx machine learning.

Specifications for PROPS Profilers:

Contact props mza.com for price quote or more information.

Tracking and Scanning Atmospheric Sensors

MZA's atmospheric sensors are easily adapted to operation with dynamic targets or from moving platforms. Tracker operation is enabled through a MASS software add-on for a controlled gimbal suited to the sensor. The tracker integrates into the common GUI to enable efficient operator control with several live feeds when using existing DELTA and/or PROPS licenses. The Xbox hand controller handles all operation of the tracker from acquisition to fine tracking, including boresight adjustments. Atmospheric sensor operation continues in parallel with the tracker. Mount calibration using stellar sources or landmarks is enabled for pointing to multiple targets on a scan list. Automated boresight adjustment to each target is included in the software. Multiple sensing modes are supported in the target scan list.

Specifications for Tracking and Scanning Atmospheric Sensors:

PM-02-600T Tracker Upgrade