Patent ID: 7400385

Claim:
A method for remotely sensing air outside a moving aircraft, comprising: generating laser radiation; splitting the laser radiation into a projected component and a control component; converting the control component into one or more electronic control signals; projecting the projected component from the aircraft into the air to induce scattered radiation; receiving a portion of the scattered radiation as backscattered radiation; converting the backscattered radiation into one or more electronic backscattered radiation signals, including splitting the backscattered radiation into a first portion and a second portion, converting the first portion to an unfiltered backscattered electronic signal, filtering the second portion using an atomic vapor filter to form a filtered second portion, and converting the filtered second portion to a filtered backscattered electronic signal; and, processing the one or more electronic control signals and the one or more electronic backscattered radiation signals to distinguish a molecular scattered radiation component from an aerosol scattered radiation component, and normalizing atmospheric return, by calculating a ratio of the filtered backscattered electronic signal to the unfiltered backscattered electronic signal, to determine one or more air parameters based on the scattered radiation.