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Articles

Number 4 (2010)

Presenting an Automated Calibration Procedure for an Airborne Lidar System and its Potential Application to Acoustic Hydrography

Submitted
August 13, 2013
Published
2010-12-12

Abstract

Whether using an airborne lidar or a ship-based acoustic system, all hydrographers must contend with geometric system calibrations. A poorly aligned system leads to erroneously reported depths, diminished system resolution and internally inconsistent datasets. Most of today’s calibration procedures are cumbersome and subjective enterprises that possess little statistical merit. This paper presents a least squares adjustment algorithm designed to calibrate a (presently under-development) lidar. This method is automated, objective, repeatable, and reports a confidence on the calibration values. Using simulated lidar datasets, the algorithm is explained and demonstrated. A brief modification is also proposed to expand the use to multibeam echosounders.