Calculation of impulse laser rangefinders′ utmost operating range with sensitivity in different weather

As one of the main weapons, impulse laser rangefinders have become the main object of the electro-optical countermeasures. So its real maximum range (defined as utmost operating range in the paper) becomes the most concerned index to evaluate the performance of electro-optical countermeasure weapons. A method for calculating laser rangefinders′ utmost operating range by its sensitivity in different weather is obtained. Then a method by experiment for getting the sensitivity is supplied. By analyzing the experiment data which the detectivity is 40%-60%, the laser rangefinders′ sensitivity is in the range of 1.7×10 -5 W to 9.8×10 -5 W. For the reason that in order to get an exact utmost operating range, the experiment accuracy of sensitivity is very important, in the last part of paper, the factors which influence the experiment accuracy of sensitivity are analyzed, such as circuit of automatic gain control, the fluctuation of laser power, incident angle of laser.