Lidar shown to detect biological agents

Experts from the U.S. Army Chemical and Biological Defense Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., worked with specialists from Fibertek Inc. of Herndon, Va., to demonstrate a light direction and ranging system - better known as lidar - to detect and track biological simulant aerosol clouds as far away as 3 kilometers. The lidar, part of the Short Range Biological Standoff Detection System - SR-BSDS - also was able to discriminate between simulant biological and non-biological aerosols, and hard targets. The test was at Dugway Proving Ground in Western Utah. The SR-BSDS is a multi-wavelength lidar with ultraviolet and infrared capability. The pump source in the biological lidar system is a frequency converted solid-state diode-pumped laser transmitter. Detection capabilities are based on laser-induced fluorescence from 310 to 445 nanometers detected on ultraviolet excitation of tryptophan - an amino acid present in biological materials. - J.K.