Moving towards a Network of Autonomous UAS Atmospheric Profiling Stations for Observations in the Earth's Lower Atmosphere: The 3D Mesonet Concept.

The deployment of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to collect routine in situ vertical profiles of the thermodynamic and kinematic state of the atmosphere in conjunction with other weather observations could significantly improve weather forecasting skill and resolution. High-resolution vertical measurements of pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and wind direction are critical to the understanding of atmospheric boundary layer processes integral to air-surface (land, ocean and sea ice) exchanges of energy, momentum, and moisture; how these are affected by climate variability; and how they impact weather forecasts and air quality simulations. We explore the potential value of collecting coordinated atmospheric profiles at fixed surface observing sites at designated times using instrumented UAS.

Multichannel polarization stabilization for coherently combined fiber laser arrays.

We demonstrate a simplified approach toward active polarization control in coherently combined laser architectures. By leveraging optical phase dithers applied by a phase controller, polarization error signals are generated for an entire laser array from a single beam sample of the combined output, enabling closed-loop polarization locking of non-polarization-maintaining fibers. The concept is shown to be compatible with both hill-climbing and synchronous multidither phase control methods.

Group delay locking of coherently combined broadband lasers.

We demonstrate a method for single-detector coherent sensing and automated coalignment of group delays in a coherently combined laser array, enabling robust coherent combining of broadband sources despite initial path mismatches exceeding the laser coherence length. The method is based on Fourier-domain filtering of the coherently combined laser beam to extract error signals, and it is equally applicable to controlling both spatial and temporal misalignments.

Active phase and polarization locking of a 1.4 kW fiber amplifier.

A three-stage Yb-fiber amplifier emitted 1.43 kW of single-mode power when seeded with a 25 GHz linewidth master oscillator (MO). The amplified output was polarization stabilized and phase locked using active heterodyne phase control.