Airborne Laser Hydrography: System Design and Performance Factors

Abstract

The National Ocean Service (NOS) within NOAA is the agency responsible for charting U.S. coastal waters and the Great Lakes. Methods are being sought to improve the efficiency of shallow-water hydrography. In 1980, NOS spent $10 million to operate a fleet of hydrographic survey vessels which use sonar to acquire shallow-water data for the production of nautical charts. The cost of hydrographic surveys for charting purposes has increased steadily as a result of inflationary pressures, the increased amount of surveying performed, and the need for more thorough surveys. Ways are sought to counter this trend by pursuing means for reducing cost, manpower, and data collection time while simultaneously improving sounding distribution and increasing productivity to satisfy growing user requirements. Such improvements are acceptable, however, only as long as the resulting data continues to meet the stringent accuracy standards established by the International Hydrographic Bureau (IHB).