Precise DGPS and Self Calibrating Laser Altimetry for Airborne Marine Geoid Determination

A. Geiger, M. Cocard, Y. Peter, and H-G. Kahle

Abstract:	An integrated Laser-Profiler system, including DGPS and attitude sensors, was implemented on an aircraft, in order to determine profiles of the terrain height at the submeter-level. The primary goal was to repeatedly use this system over glaciers for determination of height variations. The direction of the Laser beam given by the attitude sensors, combined with the distance, measured by the Laser, allows the computation of the 3-dimensional difference vector from the aircraft to the ground surface. By subtracting this difference vector from the position of the aircraft, determined by DGPS, one obtains the coordinates of the points on the profile. In this paper self calibrating methods are described. An extension of the self calibrating method to scanning systems is envisioned. Special emphasis has been put on the analysis of the performance of the system. To calibrate the system first, profile measurements over lakes have been carried out, using the fact that in a first approximation the height remains constant. It has been shown that the resolution is in the order of some centimetres, allowing the precise detennination of the geoid undulation in marine areas. Over the lake of Constance the spatially geoid undulation of 50 cm has clearly been detected. This was possible even over DGPS-distances of 80 km.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 7th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1994) September 20 - 23, 1994 Salt Palace Convention Center Salt Lake City, UT
Pages:	471 - 476
Cite this article:	Geiger, A., Cocard, M., Peter, Y., Kahle, H-G., "Precise DGPS and Self Calibrating Laser Altimetry for Airborne Marine Geoid Determination," Proceedings of the 7th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1994), Salt Lake City, UT, September 1994, pp. 471-476.
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