Michigan Company to Develop Lidar System for High-Altitude Wind Measurement

Under a two-year, $2.1 million contract from the University of New Hampshire in Durham, as part of a larger grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Michigan Aerospace Corp. of Ann Arbor will demonstrate its GroundWinds ground-based lidar system for measuring upper atmospheric winds from BalloonWinds, a platform above the atmosphere. The technology could increase the accuracy of long-term weather forecasts. The GroundWinds system can measure atmospheric wind profiles using both molecular and aerosol components of the scattered return signal.