Spaceborne LiDAR

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Spaceborne LiDAR

• Lidar In-space Technology Experiment (LITE)
  Shuttle
• 1996 Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) on
  Mars Global Surveyor
• Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) on
  ICESat
• 2006 Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared
  Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO)

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Lidar In-space Technology Experiment (LITE)
http//www-lite.larc.nasa.gov/
Onboard Shuttle in 1994
LiDAR at 3 wavelengths (nanometres) 355
wind 532 clouds 1064 land
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http//www-lite.larc.nasa.gov/n_the_images.html
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Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA)
-on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. It
collected altimetry data about the height of
surface features on Mars from 1996- 2001.
Vertical res. 37cm (1 foot) Data are collected
at 1064 nm still collects passive radiance at
the same
This is a pole-to-pole view of Martian topography
from the first MOLA global topographic model. The
slice runs from the north pole (left) to the
south pole (right) along the 0 longitude line.
The south pole has a higher elevation than the
north pole by 6 km. This global-scale slope
controlled the surface and subsurface transport
of water indicated by outflow channels and valley
networks. Discoveries e.g seasonal snow
http//mola.gsfc.nasa.gov/discoveries.html
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MOLA imageshttp//mola.gsfc.nasa.gov/images.html
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ICESat (Ice, Cloud,and land Elevation Satellite)
2003
GLAS (Geoscience Laser Altimeter System) is the
first laser-ranging (lidar) instrument for
continuous observations of Earth, primary goal
glaciers
Orbits at 600km at 94 degree angle (covers 86N
86S), lasers infrared light (1064 nanometers)
for topography (and dense clouds) visible green
light (532 nanometers) for clouds and
aerosols Laser pulses illuminate spots
(footprints) 70 metres in diameter, spaced at
170-metre intervals along Earth's surface.
Vertical res 10cm
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Launch 2003, primary goal ice sheet change
detection This and subseqnet slides from
http//topex.ucsd.edu/rs/fricker.pdf by Helen
Fricker
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Greenland
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Antarctica - IceSat
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Antarctica- glacier release after Larsen B Ice
shelf collapse
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IceSat vegetation
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Amazon IceSat70 metre footprint OK for ice,
but too big for forest
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Three Gorges Reservoir
IceSat II planned for launch 2015 with 25 metre
footprint
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Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder
Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) 2006
http//www-calipso.larc.nasa.gov/about/ the
Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization
(CALIOP) 532 / 1064 nm
See also products on CALIPSO page
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The A Train sun-synchronous at 436 miles altitude
A train included Orbiting Carbon Observatory
(OCO) failed on launch Feb 2009 ALADIN on
AEOLUS launch June 2009, spaceborne wind lidar
at 355 nm (not A-train)