Development and test of a raster scanning laser altimeter for high resolution airborne measurements of topography

The RAster SCanning Airborne Laser (RASCAL) sensor was developed in 1995 at the Goddard Space Flight Center for airborne mapping of surface topography. RASCAL is a second generation laser altimeter with application to both Earth (airborne) and planetary surface (space-based) topography measurement. It differs from earlier nadir-profiling laser altimeters by a two-order of magnitude increase in pulse repetition rate and provision for a near-contiguous scan pattern. It was operated in a NASA airborne remote sensing program in California in September 1995 where it´s ability to produce a high-resolution (better than 2 m spatial resolution) three-dimensional image of topography was demonstrated. The design and operational use of the RASCAL sensor are presented below, along with sample data sets that demonstrate its ability to map surface elevation at the sub-metre level of accuracy