Proposed lidar receiver architecture for the CZMIL system

Abstract

The Coastal Zone Mapping and Imaging Lidar (CZMIL)¹ system is a new generation airborne remote sensing system. The multi-sensor system integrates a lidar system, hyperspectral camera, digital camera, and a positioning system together to seamlessly record data over topographic and bathymetric environments. The recorded data is post-processed using data fusion algorithms to generate image products. In order to amplify the amount of information contained within the data fed to the algorithms, the architecture of the lidar receiver is designed using numerous techniques to maximize the quality of the recorded data. The receiver architecture employs commercial photomultiplier tubes operated in a logarithmic mode coupled to 10bit, 1GHz analog to digital converters. This architecture achieves sufficient dynamic range to support operating the system in both terrestrial and ocean environments. The multi-channel design of the lidar system requires the digitization of 9 channels of optical return signal data. The resulting large data volume necessitated design of a novel data reduction strategy. These important aspects of the lidar receiver's design are presented. The strategies illustrate how the receiver's architecture is designed to optimize the fidelity of the recorded data.