New Capabilities of the “SHOALS” Airborne Lidar Bathymeter

The technology and methodology of airborne laser bathymetry are far from mature, and new capabilities continue to be attained. The SHOALS lidar system was recently augmented with the ability to utilize kinematic GPS (KGPS) with on-the-fly (OTF) phase ambiguity resolution to permit the system to be used more extensively over land and for shoreline and other topographic mapping, in addition to underwater bathymetry. The seamless integration of these capabilities permits continuous surveying across the land/water boundary. Importantly, this also permits the production of sea bottom and topographic elevations without the need for concurrently measured water-level data. Algorithms and procedures associated with the use of OTF KGPS are presented along with examples of performance.