Patent ID: 7499181

Claim:
A system for anticipated measurement of turbulence upstream of an aircraft, placed on-board the aircraft, comprising: a lidar to transmit an optical beam toward a front of the aircraft and to receive a backscattered optical beam, wherein the lidar includes an optical transmission and reception portion, comprising: a laser that produces the optical beam; an obturator that blocks the optical beam at a predetermined timing; a rotating mirror and prism system that separates the optical beam such that the separated beam can scan different directions; a telescope that prevents divergence of the separated beam output by the rotating mirror and prism system; a window treated for a selected laser frequency and positioned such that the separated beam output by the telescope passes through the window and enters an atmosphere upstream of the aircraft; and an optical fiber to receive the backscattered optical beam after the backscattered beam passes through the window and the telescope; an image detector to detect variations in wind speed based on the backscattered optical beam; a first processing component using a first internal correction algorithm to calculate values of components of the wind speed; and a second processing component using a second external correction algorithm to deliver command signals to actuators of at least one aircraft control surface based on the calculated values of the components of the wind speed from the first internal correction algorithm.