Advancement in LIDAR Data Collection: NASA's Experimental Airborne Advanced Research LIDAR

The NASA Experimental Airborne Advanced Research LIDAR (EAARL) is a new developmental LIDAR designed to investigate and advance LIDAR techniques using a adaptive time resolved backscatter information for complex coastal research and monitoring applications. Information derived from such an advanced LIDAR system can potentially improve the ability of resource managers and policy makers to make better informed decisions. While there has been a large amount of research using LIDAR in coastal areas, most are limited in the amount of information captured from each laser pulse. The unique design of the EAARL instrument permits simultaneous acquisition of coastal environments which include subaerial bare earth topography, vegetation biomass, and bare earth beneath vegetated areas.