Analysis of laser backscattering from solid fuel rocket plumes

Analyses have been carried out for a ground-based experiment to measure laser backscattering from solid fuel rocket plumes. Mie scattering theory was used to compute the returned laser power as a function of range, wavelength, and scattering angle. The feasibility of retrieval of plume particle properties through various inversion methods was examined. The effects of atmospheric conditions on the detectability of the returned signal were also considered.