A tunable laser tuned to match the wavelength of water vapour absorption lines

A tunable laser was developed to serve a water vapour LIDAR. Intune Networks, a start-up working with Trinity College Dublin’s Physics Department, created a unique laser through an ESA Technology Research Programme (TRP) contract for use in a lidar system that could be tuned to match the wavelength of water vapour absorption lines. The project was successful but not pursued further because its planned space-based application, the WALES Earth explorer mission was abandoned. However the company pursued further laser development, but for optical computer networks instead.