Nov 2 - The LIDAR building

One of the atmospheric physics studies being done at Davis is the LIDAR project ((Light Detection and Ranging), which analyses upper atmosphere temperatures, wind velocities and other stuff by blasting pulses of a 30W green laser straight up through a telescope and measuring what happens to it by watching the reflected light through another couple of telescopes.

Obviously this work is when there is no cloud, but, not so obviously, it can be done during the day even though the laser is only visible to our eyes at night. There is a fancy "interference filter" in front of the receiving telescope that only lets the green laser light back through, even in broad daylight.

Our enthusiastic young physicist, Simon Alexander, is seen here outside the LIDAR building where he will spend much of this year tending to the electronics.

The other photo shows a view of Davis station - all the pipes contain
the wiring and plumbing, all of which is heated by warm water and
insulated to prevent everything freezing up.