Illustration of airborne lidar acquisition platform

Airborne lidar is a surveying method that measures distance to a target from a survey plane by illuminating that target with a pulsed laser light, and measuring the reflected pulses with a sensor. Differences in laser return times and wavelengths can then be used to make digital 3D-representations of the target. This illustration depicts the equipment used, including the plane with digital camera mounted underneath, the GPS base station, and the satellites used to obtain the coordinates.