Technology Overview

Airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) System, sometimes referred to as Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS), is a remote sensing technique used to measure the distance to an object by determining the time of flight for an emitted laser beam. A scanning mechanism (such as an oscillating mirror) is normally employed to steer a series of laser pulses(typically over 100 KHz) over a wide area from an airborne platform. All airborne LiDAR systems use enabling technologies such as Global Positioning System (GPS) and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to determine the location and orientation of the remote sensor located on the airborne platform (see Figure 1-1). The resulting data are typically used to measure topography of the land surface, including bare earth topography that excludes building sand vegetation.