Multi-Channel Scaler Cards Improve Data Collection

About this technology

Overview

Responding to a need for improved data collection for remote atmospheric measurement systems, ASRC Aerospace Corporation developed a series of low-power, highly integrated, multi-channel scaler (MCS) cards. The cards, designed to meet the needs of NASA's ground-based and airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) photon-counting programs, can rapidly collect thousands of data points during a continuous scan of the atmosphere. Using Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, ASRC Aerospace improved upon its Advanced Multi-channel Scaler-5 card, which was already utilized in several Goddard-led projects. The MCS cards can be used in pulse-counting, integrating, and histogramming applications. They have been sold worldwide for use in advanced, high repetition-rate LIDAR systems, and can be used in environmental monitoring data systems that study everything from clouds to aerosols to pollution. The military could adapt the MCS cards for its smoke and chemical plume detection systems. The cards could also be used in non-LIDAR applications such as those for nuclear waste detection monitoring.