LiDAR is one of the most important tools in the commercial drone industry. While it has been around since the 1960s when it was mounted to aircraft, its uses have expanded dramatically now that LiDAR can be used with commercial drones.
2. Micro-Topography: LIDAR is very accurate and precise technology which uses laser pulse to strike the object. Regular photogrammetry or other survey technology can miss the surface elevation value that is hidden by vegetation or forest canopy. But LIDAR can penetrate through the object and detect the surface value.
3. Agriculture: LIDAR helps the farmer to find the area that uses costly fertilizer. LIDAR can be used to create elevation map of the farmland that can be converted to create slope and sunlight exposure area map. Both the layer information can be used to create high, medium and low crop production area. Extracted information will help farmer to save on the costly fertilizer.
9. Biodiversity for Birds: As LIDAR technology is evolved in finding detail information about the forest. Forest are home for different type of birds, animals and insects. Science are using LIDAR data to analyze forest (vertical structure) to see whether it is suitable place for them. Vertical Structure of trees, shrubs and other plant tells, what species can live and prosper in that area.
14. Modelling of the Pollution: LIDAR wavelength are shorter which operates in ultraviolet, visible region or near infrared. This helps to image the object which are in same size or larger than the wavelength. So LIDAR can detect pollutant particles of carbon dioxide, Sulphur dioxide and methane. This information helps researched to create pollutant density map of the area which can be used for better planning of the city.
- Calculate Cut & fill, culvert sizing, vegetation removal, grade calculations and more.
- Height clearances
- Right of way and surface conditions
18. Oil and Gas Exploration: As LIDAR wavelength are shorter, it can be used to detect molecules content in the atmosphere that has same or bigger wavelength. There is the new technology called DIAL (Differential Absorption LIDAR) which is used to trace amount of gases above the hydrocarbon region. This tracking helps to find the Oil and Gas deposits.
Elastic backscatter LiDAR: It is the simplest type of LiDAR and is typically used for studies of aerosols and clouds.
Differential Absorption LiDAR (DIAL): It is used for the measurements of a gas like ozone, carbon dioxide, or water vapor.
Raman LiDAR: It is also used for measuring the concentration of atmospheric gases but also to take the quantity of aerosol parameters present.
Doppler LiDAR: It is used to measure wind speed.
38. Oceanography: LiDAR is used for calculation of phytoplankton fluorescence and biomass in the ocean surface. It is also used to measure the depth of the ocean (bathymetry). Typical example will be measuring of the coral Reef.
42. Imaging: LIDAR technology is used to create 3D image of the object that is in distance. 3D imaging is done with both scanning and non-scanning systems. There is a technology which uses combination of fast gated camera and LIDAR to created 3D image (3D gated viewing laser radar). It is a non-scanning systems.
CEO DroneLife.com, DroneRacingLife.com, and CMO of Jobfordrones.com. Principle at Spalding Barker Strategies. Has enjoyed working with and around the commercial drone industry for the last 10 years. Attendance and speaker at Industry Events such as Commercial UAV, InterGeo, Interdrone and others. Proud father of two. Enjoys karate, Sherlock Holmes, and interesting things. Subscribe to all things drone at DroneLife here. Email is Harry@dronelife.com. Make Sure that you WhiteList us in your email to make sure you get our Newsletter. Editor1@dronelife.com.
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