Physical model of snow precipitation interaction with a 3D lidar scanner

Abstract

Snow precipitation interaction with a generic 3D lidar is modeled. The randomness and the intensity of the signal as a function of the visibility and snowflake size and density distribution are reproduced. To do so, a representative snow density distribution is modeled as a function of visibility. Taking into account the laser beam and pulse characteristics, the probability to have one or many snowflakes of a given size in the lidar sampling cell is calculated. Knowing the number and the size of the snowflakes, the magnitude of the lidar signal is calculated. Finally, a filtering algorithm based on the relative intensity of the snowflakes is discussed.