A super-resolution laser altimetry concept

Abstract

CALIPSO satellite has been making global lidar measurements since June 2006 and its lidar, CALIOP, will likely be the only lidar in space during the next several years. Laser altimetry data from space and aircraft-based atmospheric profiling lidars, such as CALIOP, have not been widely used in the community due to their limited vertical sampling resolution (30 meter) and broad laser pulse width (20 ns). This study intends to improve the CALIPSO laser altimetry data quality and provide a highly accurate altimetry data product to the laser altimetry community. In this study, a super-resolution laser altimetry technique has been proposed to provide improved lidar altimetry from a profiling lidar with relatively broad pulse width and slow sampling rate. Application of the technique to CALIPSO data leads to highly accurate CALIPSO land surface elevation measurements. The surface elevations will be derived from near 5-year CALIPSO global observations. The CALIPSO surface elevation results in Northern America derived by the new technique agree with the National Elevation Database (NED) high resolution elevation maps and a comparison suggests that the accuracy of the new CALIPSO land surface elevation measurements is better than 1 meter.