What laser scanning can do today

    Andrei Samberg
    Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
    Helsinki University of Technology
    Otakaari 1
    02150 Espoo, Finland

    Tel: +358 9 451 3908
    Fax: +358 9 465 077
    e-mail : are@foto.hut.fi

    In this report we survey the situation with airborne laser mapping systems today. An increasing need for an instrument firstly capable of reducing dramatically the surveying time, and second, delivering the 3-D coordinates with final resolution x, y, z < 0.5 m in real-time, motivates the application of such techniques instead of aerial photography and remote sensing which rely on digital satellite imagery. We show which results are possible to achieve today based on laser scanning. In Table 1 we collected the main performances of airborne laser survey systems on the market as well as experimental. The pictures included illustrate that the measurements in forested areas succeed so that forest canopy can be eliminated and a DEM of the forest ground can be delivered very well. Also single objects, trees or towers, can be surveyed with high precision. We want to show clearly the level of development that has been reached since a laser first began to be applied in remote sensing in the 1960s. In general, the airborne laser mapping systems could be divided into terrain survey and hydrography. We give an overview of both groups of applications.