Geodetic Grade Airborne LiDAR Mapping

Nora Csanyi, Karla Edwards, Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska, and Charles Toth

Abstract:	Over the past few years, there have been considerable advances in airborne LiDAR systems which have resulted in improved LiDAR positioning accuracy and increased surface point density. These systems have demonstrated improved, cm-level ranging accuracies, significantlyincreased pulse rate frequencies (from 33 kHz in older systems to, as much as, 150 kHz in state-of-the-art systems) and provided the user with the LiDAR intensity signal (as opposed to the ranging observation only). QA/QC (Quality Assurance and Quality Control) of the LiDAR product could be further facilitated by the use of specially-designed LiDAR targets. For a scanning imaging system, the performance of the georeferencing component is an important factor of the overall error budget. The method introduced here combines highprecision georeferencing and LiDAR target technology to achieve geodetic grade (cm-level) vertical accuracy. In this paper, data from two airborne LiDAR surveys were used. One data set was collected for a fault mapping project in Southern California (known as the B4 project) while the other, for a transportation corridor calibration survey. In both cases, specifically-engineered LiDAR targets were used for QA/QC of the LiDAR data. Extensive investigations were performed on the kinematic GPS data (from the fault mapping project) and the selection of the optimal kinematic GPS processing strategy is discussed. In addition, the LiDAR target methodology developed at Ohio State University (OSU) for QA/QC of LiDAR products is described and the impact of the LiDAR targets on positioning accuracy is demonstrated as the LiDAR products from both the fault and corridor mapping surveys are compared.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2007 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 22 - 24, 2007 The Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, CA
Pages:	493 - 503
Cite this article:	Csanyi, Nora, Edwards, Karla, Grejner-Brzezinska, Dorota, Toth, Charles, "Geodetic Grade Airborne LiDAR Mapping," Proceedings of the 2007 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, CA, January 2007, pp. 493-503.
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