ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,222,276, issued on Feb. 11.
"Optical particle detector with fluorescence" was invented by Darrel Gibson Baumgardner (Taos, N.M.) and Michael M. Carrabba (Ashland, Ore.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Embodiments of the invention are directed to an optoelectronic device for detection and identification of individual water droplets, ice crystals, dust particles and volcanic ash particles, the device comprising a source of ultraviolet collimated monochromatic radiation that illuminates an area of air external to the aircraft through which freely pass individual atmospheric particles to create an illuminated sample volume of air; an optical s...