Systems and methods for sensing air outside a moving aircraft are presented.
In one embodiment, a system includes a laser for generating laser energy. The system
also includes one or more transceivers for projecting the laser energy as laser
radiation to the air. Subsequently, each transceiver receives laser energy as it
is backscattered from the air. A computer processes signals from the transceivers
to distinguish molecular scattered laser radiation from aerosol scattered laser
radiation and determines one or more air parameters based on the scattered laser
radiation. Such air parameters may include air speed, air pressure, air temperature
and aircraft orientation angle, such as yaw, angle of attack and sideslip.
