2.1 Airborne Survey – Instrumentation and Methods
The LiDAR survey uses a Leica ALS50 Phase II laser system. For the HJ Andrews and Willamette NF study areas, the sensor scan angle was ±14o from nadir1 with a pulse rate designed to yield an average native density (number of pulses emitted by the laser system) of (Nadir refers to the perpendicular vector to the ground directly below the aircraft. Nadir is commonly used to measure the angle from the vector and is referred to a “degrees from nadir”.) 8 points per square meter over terrestrial surfaces. All study areas were surveyed with an opposing flight line side-lap of =50% (=100% overlap) to reduce laser shadowing and increase surface laser painting. The Leica ALS50 Phase II system allows up to four range measurements (returns) per pulse, and all discernable laser returns were processed for the output dataset. It is not uncommon for some types of surfaces (e.g. dense vegetation or water) to return fewer pulses than the laser originally emitted. These discrepancies between ‘native’ and ‘delivered’ density will vary depending on terrain, land cover and the prevalence of water bodies.
To accurately solve for laser point position (geographic coordinates x, y, z), the positional coordinates of the airborne sensor and the attitude of the aircraft were recorded continuously throughout the LiDAR data collection mission. Aircraft position was measured twice per second (2 Hz) by an onboard differential GPS unit. Aircraft attitude was measured 200 times per second (200 Hz) as pitch, roll and yaw (heading) from an onboard inertial measurement unit (IMU). To allow for post-processing correction and calibration, aircraft/sensor position and attitude data are indexed by GPS time.
2.2.1 Survey Control
Simultaneous with the airborne data collection mission, we conducted multiple static (1 Hz recording frequency) ground surveys over monuments with known coordinates (Table 1). Indexed by time, these GPS data are used to correct the continuous onboard measurements of aircraft position recorded throughout the mission. Multiple sessions were processed over the same monument to confirm antenna height measurements and reported position accuracy.
After the airborne survey, these static GPS data were then processed using triangulation with Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) stations, and checked against the Online Positioning User Service (OPUS2) to quantify daily variance. Controls were located within 13 nautical miles of the mission area(s).
Applications and Work Flow Overview
