Control methods for merging ALSM and ground-based laser point clouds acquired under forest canopies

Kenneth Clint Slatton; Matt Coleman; William E. Carter; Ramesh L. Shrestha; Michael Sartori

doi:10.1117/12.582445

22 December 2004 Control methods for merging ALSM and ground-based laser point clouds acquired under forest canopies

Kenneth Clint Slatton, Matt Coleman, William E. Carter, Ramesh L. Shrestha, Michael Sartori

Proceedings Volume 5661, Remote Sensing Applications of the Global Positioning System; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.582445
Event: Fourth International Asia-Pacific Environmental Remote Sensing Symposium 2004: Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere, Ocean, Environment, and Space, 2004, Honolulu, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

Merging of point data acquired from ground-based and airborne scanning laser rangers has been demonstrated for cases in which a common set of targets can be readily located in both data sets. However, direct merging of point data was not generally possible if the two data sets did not share common targets. This is often the case for ranging measurements acquired in forest canopies, where airborne systems image the canopy crowns well, but receive a relatively sparse set of points from the ground and understory. Conversely, ground-based scans of the understory do not generally sample the upper canopy. An experiment was conducted to establish a viable procedure for acquiring and georeferencing laser ranging data underneath a forest canopy. Once georeferenced, the ground-based data points can be merged with airborne points even in cases where no natural targets are common to both data sets. Two ground-based laser scans are merged and georeferenced with a final absolute error in the target locations of less than 10cm. This is comparable to the accuracy of the georeferenced airborne data. Thus, merging of the georeferenced ground-based and airborne data should be feasible. The motivation for this investigation is to facilitate a thorough characterization of airborne laser ranging phenomenology over forested terrain as a function of vertical location in the canopy.

Citation Download Citation

Kenneth Clint Slatton, Matt Coleman, William E. Carter, Ramesh L. Shrestha, and Michael Sartori "Control methods for merging ALSM and ground-based laser point clouds acquired under forest canopies", Proc. SPIE 5661, Remote Sensing Applications of the Global Positioning System, (22 December 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.582445

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