Asian Surveying & Mapping
Breaking News
Nuri rocket successfully completes KAIST’s next-gen satellite mission
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)...
President Lai reviews progress on first indigenous satellite constellation
President Lai Ching-te said developing space technology is a...
Japan’s iQPS lines up eight SAR launches
ST. LOUIS — Japan’s Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of...
UAE Astronauts Promote AI and Collaboration in Space at GITEX Europe
The Arab world’s first astronaut, Hazzaa Al Mansouri, and...
New species of space-adapted bacteria discovered on China’s Tiangong space station
Scientists have discovered a previously unknown strain of microbe...
Isro’s 101st mission fails as PSLV-C61 suffers third-stage anomaly
India’s latest Earth observation satellite mission faced a setback...
Iraq’s First Fully Solar-Powered Village in Kulak Is Now Operational
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – May 20, 2025 — The...
Australia’s Gilmour Space Technologies ready to launch maiden Eris Test flight the nation’s first orbital launch in over 50 years
Gilmour Space Technologies is the leading launch services company...
Korea’s space agency seeks revision of plan to modify next-gen rockets into reusable system
South Korea's aerospace agency said on Thursday that it...
UAE Space Agency Signs Agreement With Technology Innovation Institute to Execute the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt’s Lander Project
In the presence of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin...

April 16th, 2007
New Zealand Aerial Mapping commences operation of a new Optech ALTM Waveform Digitiser

The company has operated laser scanners for some time. Normally, these systems operate by returning the time light takes to travel from the sensor to its target. In an airborne sensor, this almost always means from the aircraft to the ground.

As the laser scans from side to side, this information makes it possible to calculate the distance from the aircraft to many thousands of spots on the ground. In this way, a laser scanner builds up a picture of the shape of the Earth under the plane.

An extension of this idea is to measure the intensity of the return. Customers like this facility, because it makes it possible to infer something about the surface at that point.

Capturing the entire waveform is simply an extension of this idea, although it is much more difficult to do.

Software algorithms are required to analyse the data. They makes it possible to discriminate targets in very close proximity provided they generate different waveforms. Also, it is possible to recover data about the roughness of the target or the slope of the terrain.

This may be beneficial when ranging to extended targets or through complex structures such as vegetation.

Visit www.nzam.com for more information.

Headlines