IceSat-2 ATLAS photon-counting receiver: initial on-orbit performance

Guangning Yang; Anthony J. Martino; Wei Lu; John Cavanaugh; Megan Bock; Michael A. Krainak

doi:10.1117/12.2520626

13 May 2019 IceSat-2 ATLAS photon-counting receiver: initial on-orbit performance

Guangning Yang, Anthony J. Martino, Wei Lu, John Cavanaugh, Megan Bock, Michael A. Krainak

Proceedings Volume 10978, Advanced Photon Counting Techniques XIII; 109780B (2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2520626
Event: SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing, 2019, Baltimore, MD, United States

Abstract

Photon-counting receivers are deployed on the NASA Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat2) Advance Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS). The ATLAS laser altimeter design has total six ground tracks with three strong and three weak tracks. The strong track has nominally 4 times more laser power than the weak track. The receiver is operated in photon counting mode. There are 16 photon-counting channels for each strong track and 4 photon-counting channels for each weak track. Hamamatsu photomultiplier with a 4x4-array anode was used as photon counting detector. This receiver design has high counting efficiency (>15%) at 532 nm, low dark count rate (<400 counts per second), low jitter (less than 285ps), short dead time (<3 ns), long lifetime under large solar background radiation, radiation harden for space operation, and ruggedized for survives the harsh vibration during the launch. In this paper, we will present the initial on-orbit performance of this photon-counting receiver.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Guangning Yang, Anthony J. Martino, Wei Lu, John Cavanaugh, Megan Bock, and Michael A. Krainak "IceSat-2 ATLAS photon-counting receiver: initial on-orbit performance", Proc. SPIE 10978, Advanced Photon Counting Techniques XIII, 109780B (13 May 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2520626

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