The UCLA-HIPAS

FOCUSED LASER BEAM PROJECT

R.F. Wuerker

UCLA Plasma Physics Laboratory

Los Angeles, CA 90095-1543

September 23, 2002

The 100 inch aperture Liquid Mirror Telescope and lidar collector at the HIPAS Observatory has been proposed as a new method of ionospheric modification, soon after it was realized that the mirror could focus a 1054 nm laser pulse to a spot with a diffraction limited core of only ~3.5 cm diameter at 90 km distance (2x10^-3 Torr or 10¹⁴ particles/cm³). Particulate from the influx of micro meteors will initiate plasma production, with emitted fast electrons further ionizing the background gas. Nova laser equipment, awarded to UCLA by DOE, has been reconfigured into a double pass laser of ~200 J output and nanosecond duration. A building for the laser has been added to the existing HIPAS lidar building which houses the LMT. Nova laser equipment has been moved from LLNL into the building. The assembly of the laser is awating follow on funding.