Principles of construction of satellite laser rangefinders for work in daytime conditions

Creation of precision satellite laser range finders with one-electron sensitivity for operation in daylight conditions is considered a difficult and complex technical problem. In the present article methods and the means applied to reduction of influence of a day background on accuracy and a noise immunity of measurements are considered, requirements to power characteristics of laser range finders are defined. It is shown that the existing technique of spatial and spectral selection of a background, level of power parameters of modern picosecond laser transmitters and algorithms of signal extraction in a background provide creation of satellite laser range finders to perform of precision measurements of range in all conditions of a day background of scattered sunlight. It is shown also that the probability of detection the signal flow in the presence of a strong background is largely determined by the dead time of the photodetector and the way of allocation of an signal flow from the background, providing performance of measurements is offered at the minimum values of the relation a signal/background.