Multichannel Scaler Cards Improve Lidar Data Collection

NASA Tech Briefs, Jul 2004

Multichannel sealer cards

ASRC Aerospace Corp.

Greenbelt, MD

301-837-5500

www.akspace.com

Using Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, ASRC Aerospace Corp. was able to improve upon its PC/104-based, five-detector input multichannel sealer (MCS) card. The resulting MCS cards have a USB interface, multiple detector inputs, and various peripheral functions enabling the cards to be used with ground-based, airborne, and space-based atmospheric sensing equipment.

Various Lidar programs at NASA Goddard are benefiting from the MCS cards, including Cloud Physics Lidar, Thickness From Off Beam Returns Lidar, Goddard Lidar Observatory for Winds, 24-Channel Doppler Lidar, Advanced Micropulse Lidar, and the Holographic Airborne Rotating Lidar Instrument Experiment.

ASRC computer technology also was used recently to reengineer NASA's Scientific and Technical Information (STI) database, enabling NASA users to access information more quickly and providing a more reliable system. The NASA STI database is a bibliographic database of NASA and other aerospace information with about 3.3 million records. The collection includes STI content from 12 NASA centers and from more than 50 countries, making it the largest collection of aerospace scientific and technical information.

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