Air Force Research Laboratory, Aero-Effects Laboratory optical metrology system and performance

Directed energy systems developed to reside on airborne platforms can experience a multitude of sources of degradation that reduce optical system performance. Three major sources of these degradations, or aberrations, can be attributed to platform jitter, atmospheric turbulence, and aero-optical disturbances. Aero-optics is the term used to describe the aberrations induced from the aero-dynamical environment surrounding an aircraft as it travels through the air at high speeds and the resulting varying air pressures induced. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Laser Division has recently brought online the Aero-Effects Laboratory (AEL) capable of performing various aerooptical experimental tests. The AFRL AEL currently has a supersonic wind tunnel with a test section that allows large optical access for various article testing and system simulations. In this document, the current status and performance of the AEL Optical Metrology System and some initial results from experiments currently in development will be presented. Data acquisition systems include the use of pressure sensors, pitot probes, Schlieren imaging, and wavefront sensors. In this manuscript, the AEL Optical Metrology System has been redesigned to include off-axis parabolic mirrors to significantly increase the optical quality of the system.