Lidar measurements for the Charged Aerosol Release Experiment (CARE)

. An artificial dusty plasma in space was created using a chemical release during the Charged Aerosol Release Experiment (CARE) in September 2009. CARE was launched from Wallops Island, Virginia on a trajectory that took the CARE release module to an apogee of 360 km altitude for a release on the downleg at 280 km altitude. 110 kg of aluminum oxide particulates was ejected from a 2-meter long canister with the exit port pointed to the nadir. A 20 degree ½ angle cone of dust was ejected with a velocity of between 2 and 3 km/s. The dust became charged in the ionosphere to form negatively charged dust particles. A ground laser system operating at 1064nm (Nd:YAG) with a repetition rate of 10 Hz and pulse width of 250 picoseconds was used to illuminate the dust cloud during release and expansion. Lidar measurements of the backscattered light were made from the NRL Optical Test Facility located approximately 370km from the release point. The lidar measurements were done while scanning over the density profile of the cloud. The backscattered 1064nm light was also imaged with a 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope equipped with an InGaAs camera and 1064nm bandpass filters at the NRL Chesapeake Bay Detachment at a distance of approximately 320km.