Characterizing Performance of Broadband Laser Ranging

Broadband Laser Ranging (BLR) is a recently developed instrument for measuring the position of rapidly moving surfaces. Two gas gun experiments were performed to characterize a 16-channel Broadband Laser Ranging system. The precision of the measured position data exceeded expectations and has revealed systematic errors of up to 12 microns. These errors appear to be caused by the interaction of the data analysis routines with the recording hardware's frequency-dependent signal response.