Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Image:Starfield Optical Range - sodium laser.jpg

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Starfield Optical Range - sodium laser[edit]

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File:Image:Starfield Optical Range - sodium laser.jpg
Original – "This sodium laser—being fired from the Starfire Optical Range on Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico—is used with deformable optics to help eliminate atmospheric distortions when gathering images of objects in space." Though the caption states that this is a "sodium laser", this is actually misleading as the Starfire Optical Range LIDAR laser seen here is actually two solid state IR lasers, 1.064 and 1.319 microns, that are frequency summed in LBO within a doubly resonant cavity.
Reason
This is a very interesting and unique picture,there are not many other pictures like it (Matching its quality) and it is of very good quality.
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Creator
Directed Energy Directorate, US Air Force