The Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) is a time-of-flight altimeter instrument being developed for the HERA mission, designated as Planetary ALTimeter (PALT). PALT is positioned in the center of the top face of the HERA probe, and therefore, it can...
The MEthane Remote sensing Lidar missioN (MERLIN) aims at demonstrating the spaceborne active measurement of atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas, based on an Integrated Path Differential Absorption (IPDA) nadir-viewing LIght Detecting and Ra...
MERLIN (MEthane Remote sensing LIdar missioN) is a Franco-German space mission designed to provide weighted columns of atmospheric methane through an inversion of the lidar signal using a priori information on the atmospheric state. Uncertainties abo...
In the context of MERLIN (MEthane Remote LIdar missioN), a French–German spatial lidar mission dedicated to monitoring the atmospheric methane content, two software programs have been developed: LIDSIM (LIDar SIMulator) and PROLID (PROcessor LIDar)....
The Aeolus satellite mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) has brought the first wind LiDAR to space to satisfy the long-existing need for global wind profile observations. Until the successful launch on 22 August 2018, pre-launch campaign activ...
In the realm of earth observation and space exploration, LiDAR technology offers humanity insights into the dynamics of our planet and beyond. This paper reviews spaceborne LiDAR instruments with attention to their evolution, capabilities, and achiev...
In the context of the FrenchGerman space lidar mission MERLIN (MEthane Remote LIdar missioN) dedicated to the determination of the atmospheric methane content, an end-to-end mission simulator is being developed. In order to check whether the instrume...
We propose a new satellite mission to deliver high quality measurements of upper air water vapour. The concept centres around a LiDAR in limb sounding by occultation geometry, designed to operate as a very long path system for differential absorption...
Evaluation of the impact of turbidity on satellite-derived bathymetry (SDB) is a crucial step for selecting optimal scenes and for addressing the limitations of SDB. This study examines the relatively high-resolution MultiSpectral instrument (MSI) on...
We report the development of a new type of space lidar specifically designed for missions to small planetary bodies for both topographic mapping and support of sample collection or landing. The instrument is designed to have a wide dynamic range with...
Space missions to study small solar system bodies, such as asteroids and comet cores, are enhanced by lidar that can provide global mapping and serve as navigation sensors for landing and surface sampling. A small swath-mapping lidar using a fiber la...
Radar altimetry is now commonly used to provide long-term monitoring of inland water levels in complement to or for replacing disappearing in situ networks of gauge stations. Recent improvements in tracking and acquisition modes improved the quality...
This paper reports the implementation of two critical technologies used in light detection and ranging for space applications: (1) a microchip Q-switched laser breadboard; (2) a breadboard of an indium gallium arsenide avalanche photodiode working at...
This study examines the application of low-cost 1D LiDAR sensors in drone-based stockpile volume estimation, with a focus on indoor environments. Three approaches were experimentally investigated: (i) a multi-drone system equipped with static, downwa...
Many lightweight lidar sensors employed for UAS lidar mapping feature a fan-style laser emitter-detector configuration which results in a non-uniform pattern of laser pulse returns. As the role of UAS lidar mapping grows in both research and industry...
In order to study forests at the global scale, a detailed link budget for a lidar system onboard satellite is presented. It is based on an original approach coupling airborne lidar observations and an end-to-end simulator. The simulator is initialize...
The year 2023 marked the tenth anniversary of the first published description of global ocean plankton stocks based on measurements from a satellite lidar. Diverse studies have since been conducted to further refine and validate the lidar retrievals...
Research activities combining lidar and radar remote sensing have increased in recent years. The main focus in combining lidar-radar forest remote sensing has been on the retrieval of the aboveground biomass (AGB), which is a primary variable related...
Early spaceborne laser altimetry mission development starts in pre-phase A design, where diverse ideas are evaluated against mission science requirements. A key challenge is predicting realistic instrument performance through forward modeling at an a...
This paper focuses on mission planning and cooperative navigation algorithms for multi-drone systems aimed at LiDAR-based mapping. It aims at demonstrating how multi-UAV cooperation can be used to fulfill LiDAR data georeferencing accuracy requiremen...
The laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy was systematically utilized for remote sensing of different soils and rocks for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. Laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy measurements were carried out by the dev...
In the last two decades, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) were successfully used in different environments for diverse applications like territorial mapping, heritage 3D documentation, as built surveys, construction monitoring, solar panel placement a...
Two space-borne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) missions, Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) and Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), have demonstrated high capabilities in extracting terrain and canopy heights in fo...
ATLID (ATmospheric LIDar) is the atmospheric backscatter Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) instrument on board of the Earth Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) mission, the sixth Earth Explorer Mission of the European Space Agency (ES...
LiDAR data has been successfully used to estimate forest parameters such as canopy heights and biomass. Major limitation of LiDAR systems (airborne and spaceborne) arises from their limited spatial coverage. In this study, we present a technique for...
This paper offers a comprehensive review of traditional and advanced stockpile volume-estimation techniques employed within both outdoor and indoor confined spaces, whether that be a terrestrial- or an aerial-based technique. Traditional methods, suc...
The aim of this study is to highlight the issue of missed supercooled liquid water (SLW) detection in the current radar/lidar derived products and to investigate the potential of the combined use of the EarthCARE mission and the Arctic Weather Satell...
Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are a necessity for modelling many large-scale environmental processes. In this study, we investigate the potential of data from two spaceborne lidar altimetry missions, ICESat-2 and GEDI—with respect to their ve...
Lidar technology plays a pivotal role in lunar exploration, particularly in terrain mapping, 3D topographic surveying, and velocity measurement, which are crucial for guidance, navigation, and control. This paper reviews the current global research a...
The Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), an Earth-observing laser altimetry mission, is currently providing global elevation measurements. Geolocation validation confirms the altimeter’s ability to accurately position the measurement...
5 September 2023
The eVe lidar is a scanning system that can perform combined linear/circular polarization and Raman measurements at 355 nm and consists of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) reference aerosol lidar system. eVe was deployed in the ASKOS campaign,...
In recent decades, terrain modelling and reconstruction techniques have increased research interest in precise short and long distance autonomous navigation, localisation and mapping within field robotics. One of the most challenging applications is...
The hydrological information derived from a digital elevation model is very important in distributed hydrological modeling. As part of alpine hydrological research on stream network modeling using remote sensing data in the northeast of the Tibetan P...
24 August 2023
The limited availability of wind profile measurements has hindered atmospheric models and climate systems’ understanding. The European Space Agency’s Aeolus mission’s space-based Doppler wind lidar technology could solve this issue...
Single photon sensitive airborne Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) enables a higher area performance at the price of an increased outlier rate and a lower ranging accuracy compared to conventional Multi-Photon LiDAR. Single Photon LiDAR, in particu...
We introduce a multiscale superpixel approach that leverages repeat-pass interferometric coherence and sparse AGB estimates from a simulated spaceborne lidar in order to extend the NISAR mission’s applicable range of aboveground biomass (AGB) i...
Multi-spectral (ms) airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) data are increasingly used for mapping purposes. Geometric data are enriched by intensity digital numbers (DNs) and, by utilizing this additional information either directly, or in the...
The 21st century has seen the launch of new space-borne sensors based on LiDAR (light detection and ranging) technology developed in the second half of the 20th century. Nowadays, these sensors offer novel opportunities for mapping terrain and canopy...
NASA’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) launched in fall 2018 and has since collected continuous elevation data over the Earth’s surface. The primary scientific objective is to measure the cryosphere for studies relate...
This study presents a global aerosol climatology derived from six years (October 2018–October 2024) of the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) observations, using a U-Net Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) machine learning alg...
Satellite and airborne observations of surface elevation are critical in understanding climatic and glaciological processes and quantifying their impact on changes in ice masses and sea level contribution. With the growing number of dedicated airborn...
Photodetectors play a critical role in space lidars designed for scientific investigations from orbit around planetary bodies. The detectors must be highly sensitive due to the long range of measurements and tight constraints on the size, weight, and...
Over the last few years, LiDAR has become a popular technology for the direct acquisition of topographic information. In spite of the increasing utilization of this technology in several applications, its accuracy potential has not been fully explore...
Airborne laser scanning has proven useful for rapid and extensive documentation of historic cultural landscapes after years of applications mapping natural landscapes and the built environment. The recent integration of unoccupied aerial vehicles (UA...
Amongst all the methodologies readily available to estimate forest canopy and aboveground carbon (AGC), in-situ plot surveys and airborne laser scanning systems appear to be powerful assets. However, they are limited to relatively local scales. In th...
In this paper, we illustrate a new, simple and complementary ground-based methodology to retrieve the vertically resolved atmospheric precipitation intensity through a synergy between measurements from the National Aeronautics and Space Administratio...
A low-cost, yet accurate approach for stockpile volume estimation within confined storage spaces is presented. The novel approach relies on actuating a single-point light detecting and ranging (1D LiDAR) sensor using a micro servo motor onboard a dro...
The CartoDEM Version 3 Release 1 openly accessible datasets are currently the most reliable datasets for relatively plain regions in India specifically. The aim of the presented study is to evaluate CartoDEM with respect to two openly accessible spac...
Agricultural production, the main pillar of food security, is highly dependent on soil quality, and threatened by erosion processes that degrade soil quality. This article is part of a research to verify the usefulness of differential interferometric...
Building damage maps can be generated from either optical or Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) datasets. In the wake of a disaster such as an earthquake, a timely and detailed map is a critical reference for disaster teams in order to plan and perf...
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