GroundWinds New Hampshire

Dome and Facility

The GroundWinds instrument is housed in a facility that was designed around the functional requirements of the system. Since this is a ground-based technology demonstration with high public visibility, a high degree of emphasis was placed on functionality and aesthetics.

Each of the GroundWinds systems has different requirements in terms of thermal control, heat dissipation and lighting. For this reason, the building was built in three zones; the instrument room, the control room, and a utility room with a bathroom added for convenience.

The laser is a laboratory instrument designed to operate in a benign environment. It has not been hardened in any way. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid temperature fluctuations of more than a few degrees so as to not adversely impact the stability of the laser. For this reason, tight thermal controls were designed into the facility for the laser system. The interferometer and the laser share the same area of the building. The absolute temperature is not of consequence to the laser. The only requirement is to maintain a fairly constant temperature. The interferometer is equipped with its own environmentally controlled chamber. The only requirement is that the ambient temperature in the room be set to several degrees below the operating temperature of the interferometer to provide some cooling power.

A layout of the facility is shown below:

Pictures of the interior and exterior of the facility can be seen below:

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