METHOD OF MEASURING SPEED OF CLOUDS Russian patent published in 2013 - IPC G01S17/95 

FIELD: radio engineering, communication.

SUBSTANCE: laser emitter mounted on or near the Earth's transmits into the body of the monitored cloud pulsed laser radiation with pulse duration of 10-20 ns and pulse spacing of not more than 2 s. The laser radiation is transmitted to the cloud such that it is directed vertically upwards or downwards. The direction and speed of the laser emitter are determined if the laser emitter is mounted on or moves along with a mobile object. Scattered radiation is received where the laser emitter is mounted and its time of arrival is measured. At least two signals separated by a time interval of not more than 2 s are selected from said signals. An optical telescopic device is used to form an image from each of the received signals, which represent an image of two-dimensional distribution of intensity. A two-dimensional cross-correlation function is generated from said images. The value of spatial shift of two images relative each other is determined from the position of the maximum of the cross-correlation function. The speed and direction of the monitored cloud are calculated from said shift taking into account the time between the obtained images.

EFFECT: obtaining high-contrast images of small parts of a cloud, separated from each other by a time interval.

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