Wikipedia

File:Starfire Optical Range - sodium laser.jpg

Original file (2,000 × 3,008 pixels, file size: 4.3 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Summary

Original caption: "

This sodium laser—being fired from the Starfire Optical Range on Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico—is used with deformable optics to help eliminate atmospheric distortions when gathering images of objects in space.

"

Though the caption states that this is a "sodium laser", this is actually misleading as the Starfire Optical Range LIDAR laser seen here is actually two solid state IR lasers, 1.064 and 1.319 microns, that are frequency summed in LBO within a doubly resonant cavity. The orange beam is observed due to the intense laser light scattering off particles in the air. In general, laser light travelling through a vacuum can not be seen unless aimed directly towards the observer.

Licensing

Public domain
This image or file is a work of a U.S. Air Force Airman or employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image or file is in the public domain in the United States.

العربية ∙ беларуская (тарашкевіца) ∙ català ∙ čeština ∙ Deutsch ∙ English ∙ español ∙ eesti ∙ فارسی ∙ suomi ∙ français ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ 한국어 ∙ македонски ∙ മലയാളം ∙ မြန်မာဘာသာ ∙ norsk bokmål ∙ Plattdüütsch ∙ Nederlands ∙ polski ∙ português ∙ português do Brasil ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenčina ∙ slovenščina ∙ српски / srpski ∙ svenska ∙ Türkçe ∙ українська ∙ Tiếng Việt ∙ 中文（简体） ∙ 中文（繁體） ∙ +/−

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

media type

image/jpeg

exposure time

30 second

focal length

50 millimetre

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current23:32, 4 May 2006Thumbnail for version as of 23:32, 4 May 20062,000 × 3,008 (4.3 MB)Fastfission~commonswikiOriginal caption: ''"This sodium laser—being fired from the Starfire Optical Range on Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico—is used with deformable optics to help eliminate atmospheric distortions when gathering images of objects in space."'' ==License

Global file usage

The following other wikis use this file:

Metadata

This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it.

If the file has been modified from its original state, some details may not fully reflect the modified file.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Starfire_Optical_Range_-_sodium_laser.jpg"