Detector array considerations for laser remote sensing

Summary form only given. We have developed a 1.5 micron multi-detector heterodyne Doppler lidar type system in the laboratory to study the enhancement in expected S/N through use of a multi-element and balanced heterodyne detector array. Preliminary experiments have been conducted and indicate that the coherent summation of two separate balanced heterodyne detector signals seems to provide enhanced detection of the Doppler shifted signal.