Photo Science is an industry leader in the collection and processing of airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) information. LiDAR is an active remote sensing system that uses airborne laser scanning technology to emit pulses of light to illuminate the terrain. By accurately measuring the round trip travel time of the laser pulse from the aircraft to the ground, a highly accurate spot elevation can be calculated. Scanning over a broad area, the sampling locations can be combined to form accurate models of the earth’s surface.

Photo Science utilizes the latest in LiDAR technology, employing the Leica Geosystems Airborne Laser Scanner (ALS) 50 sensor. With the 2.8-meter vertical discrimination capability and the ability to discriminate between four separate LiDAR returns, this 83 kHz sensor can collect elevation data with amazing accuracy.

In addition to LiDAR acquisition, Photo Science utilizes a variety of technologies to process the acquired, raw LiDAR information—converting the X,Y,Z ASCII point samplings into finished digital elevation models (DEM), surface terrain models (DTM), and digital contour products. Our experts utilize a combination of automated and manual software processing techniques to calibrate, check, and correct the data for systematic errors, as well as initially clean and finish the data. Additionally, vegetation and cultural features can be removed from the data and integrated with photogrammetrically collected breakline information to generate finished, bare-earth DEMs and DTMs.