Know the Atmosphere Before You Engage
A high energy laser (HEL) is only as good as the path it travels. Cloud, turbulence, water vapor and aerosols scatter, absorb and spread the beam long before it reaches the target. The Solmirus FSO/DE Atmospheric Station measures every one of them, across the whole sky and on your exact line of sight, day and night, and turns them into a single measured go / marginal / no-go verdict.
Built on more than 20 years of calibrated all-sky infrared imaging for government, defense and research customers, the station combines the Solmirus infrared channel, the Miratlas visible system and SkyVIS, the DN-DIMM turbulence monitor and an external weather station into one authoritative source for range and engagement decisions.
Point it at a line of sight and get a measured verdict with every contributing value and threshold listed. Stale or missing data grades unknown, never go.
A continuous, calibrated record of the conditions on every test day, so results can be compared across shots, campaigns and seasons.
Archived all-sky imagery, turbulence and weather tied to each engagement time, to explain performance and separate system issues from atmospheric ones.
Long-term cloud, turbulence and water vapor statistics by direction and elevation for siting fixed installations and planning operating windows.
| Measurement | Source | Effect on the beam |
| Cloud mask & optical depth | Calibrated LWIR all-sky imager | Cloud blocks or heavily attenuates the path. Detected day and night, including thin and high cloud. |
| Optical transmission | Visible imager with SkyVIS star-count analysis | Measured clear-path transparency by sky sector at night, with clear-sky fraction by day. |
| Turbulence r0, θ0, τ0 | DN-DIMM, day and night | Sets beam spread and wander, how far off-axis a correction holds, and how long it stays valid. |
| Cn² profile | SHABAR (option), daytime, 0 to 1,000 m | Where along the path the turbulence sits, which matters most for near-ground horizontal and slant paths. |
| Precipitable water vapor | Calibrated infrared, model fitted, with provenance | Water vapor absorbs in the infrared and drives path loss on clear days. |
| Sky & cloud temperature | Calibrated infrared, per pixel | Separates low warm cloud from cold cirrus and tracks the thermal state of the atmosphere. |
| Wind, humidity, pressure, rain, solar separation | External weather station and SOLUS | Surface conditions on the range, precipitation holds and Sun keep-out on the line of sight. |
Four mechanisms decide how much of a laser's power arrives on target. The station measures the atmosphere behind each one, on the line of sight that matters.
I(z) = I0 e−αz
Irradiance on target falls exponentially with path extinction α. Thin cirrus and sub-visual cloud raise α sharply without being obvious to an observer.
Station: calibrated LWIR detection of cloud, including sub-visual cirrus, with optical depth sampled on the exact target line of sight. SkyVIS adds measured clear-path transmission by sky sector at night.
Δn ∝ αabs · I Pcr ∝ 1 / αabs
Absorbed energy heats the air along the path and defocuses the beam. The critical power before blooming dominates falls as absorption by water vapor and aerosols rises.
Station: column water vapor with provenance on every value, sky temperature and surface weather, delivered as inputs to your propagation and blooming models.
r0 = ( 0.423 k2 secζ ∫ Cn2(z) dz )−3/5
Refractive index fluctuations cause beam wander, scintillation and loss of coherence. The Fried parameter r0 sets the effective aperture before turbulence limits performance.
Station: r0, θ0 and τ0 measured day and night by the DN-DIMM, plus a daytime Cn2 profile to 1,000 m with the SHABAR option.
PCFLOS(θ) = [ PCFLOS(90°) ]f(θ)
Moving targets cross the whole sky, and the chance of a clear path drops toward the horizon as the path through the atmosphere lengthens.
Station: whole-sky cloud mapping, per-sector availability statistics by elevation, and short-range cloud-drift nowcasts for fixed directions or tracked targets.
Infrared optical depth and SkyVIS transmission are measured in their own bands. Extinction and absorption at your laser wavelength are derived through your propagation model; the station supplies the measured atmosphere it needs.
SOLUS fuses infrared, visible, turbulence and weather into a single link status for the direction you are pointing. Thresholds are yours to set; the direction of each comparison is fixed by the physics, so a configuration error cannot turn a no-go into a go. Forecasts are advisory and never change a verdict decided by measurement. Every call returns the values and thresholds behind the answer, giving operators and test directors a defensible record.
Delivered STIG hardened on request. HTTPS only, role-based accounts, a 15-character password policy with history and expiration, account lockout, inactivity timeouts, a sign-in audit log and a per-unit API key. A full documented API is included, so the station feeds range control, fire control or test data systems directly. Designed and built in Colorado Springs, CO.
See the full specifications, or contact us to discuss your site and requirements.
