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• Kaasalainen, S
• Pyysalo, U
• Krooks, A
• Vain, A
• Kukko, A
• Hyyppä, J
• Kaasalainen, M
• [+] on Google Scholar
• Kaasalainen, S
• Pyysalo, U
• Krooks, A
• Vain, A
• Kukko, A
• Hyyppä, J
• Kaasalainen, M
• [+] on PubMed
• Kaasalainen, S
• Pyysalo, U
• Krooks, A
• Vain, A
• Kukko, A
• Hyyppä, J
• Kaasalainen, M

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Sensors 2011, 11(11), 10586-10602; doi:10.3390/s111110586

Article

Absolute Radiometric Calibration of ALS Intensity Data: Effects on Accuracy and Target Classification

Sanna Kaasalainen ^1,* , Ulla Pyysalo ² , Anssi Krooks ¹ , Ants Vain ^1,3 , Antero Kukko ¹ , Juha Hyyppä ¹  and Mikko Kaasalainen ⁴

¹ Department of Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry, Finnish Geodetic Institute, Geodeetinrinne 2, P.O. Box 15, 02431 Masala, Finland ² Department of Geoinformatics and Cartography, Finnish Geodetic Institute, Geodeetinrinne 2, P.O. Box 15, 02431 Masala, Finland ³ Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu 51014, Estonia ⁴ Department of Mathematics, Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 553, 33101 Tampere, Finland

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 15 September 2011; in revised form: 31 October 2011 / Accepted: 4 November 2011 / Published: 7 November 2011

(This article belongs to the Section Remote Sensors)

Download PDF Full-Text [741 KB, uploaded 7 November 2011 12:07 CET]

Abstract: Radiometric calibration of airborne laser scanning (ALS) intensity data aims at retrieving a value related to the target scattering properties, which is independent on the instrument or flight parameters. The aim of a calibration procedure is also to be able to compare results from different flights and instruments, but practical applications are sparsely available, and the performance of calibration methods for this purpose needs to be further assessed. We have studied the radiometric calibration with data from three separate flights and two different instruments using external calibration targets. We find that the intensity data from different flights and instruments can be compared to each other only after a radiometric calibration process using separate calibration targets carefully selected for each flight. The calibration is also necessary for target classification purposes, such as separating vegetation from sand using intensity data from different flights. The classification results are meaningful only for calibrated intensity data.

Keywords: LiDAR; 42.68.Wt; 42.79.Qx calibration; 06.20.fb remote sensing; 07.07.Df 07.07.Df sensors; remote sensing

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