Flash Lidar Data Processing

Late last year, a prototype Flash LIDAR instrument flew on a series of airborne tests to demonstrate its potential for improved vegetation measurements. The prototype is a precursor to the Electronically Steerable Flash LIDAR (ESFL) currently under development at Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp. with funding from the NASA Earth Science Technology Office. ESFL may soon significantly expand our ability to measure vegetation and forests and better understand the extent of their role in global climate change and the carbon cycle - all critical science questions relating to the upcoming NASA DESDynI and ESA BIOMASS missions. In order to more efficiently exploit data returned from the experimental Flash Lidar system and plan for data exploitation from future flights, Ball funded a graduate student project (through the Ball Summer Intern Program, summer 2009) to develop and implement algorithms for post-processing of the 3-Dimensional Flash Lidar data. This effort included developing autonomous algorithms to resample the data to a uniform rectangular grid, geolocation of the data, and visual display of large swaths of data. The resampling, geolocation, surface hit detection, and aggregation of frame data are implemented with new MATLAB code, and the efficient visual display is achieved with free commercial viewing software. These efforts directly support additional tests flights planned as early as October 2009, including possible flights over Niwot Ridge, CO, for which there is ICESat data, and a sea-level coastal area in California to test the effect of higher altitude (above ground level) on the divergence of the beams and the beam spot sizes.