MGT 7-1.indd - KMI Media Group

14 | MGT 7.1
Advances in technology are
facilitating the use of light detection
and ranging (LIDAR) data and
helping to expand its use into new
areas, including simulation and
training.
The U.S. military has been
accumulating a great deal of
LIDAR data from aircraft and terrestrial
vehicles in Iraq and plans
to do the same in Afghanistan.
Forces are using BuckEye, a system
developed under the auspices
BY PETER A. BUXBAUM
MGT CORRESPONDENT
of the Army Topographic Engineering
Center, for example, to
collect data on tens of thousands
of square kilometers of Iraqi urban
areas.
LIDAR, which was first developed
in the early 1990s, uses
1.064 nanometer wavelength laser
light pulses to gauge elevations by
measuring the time delay between
transmission of the pulse and
detection of the reflected signal.
A range finder mounted in an
aircraft flying at an altitude of
between 1,500 and 3,000 meters
swings back and forth collecting
data on up to 150,000 points per
second, providing resolutions of
one point per meter on the ground
and one point per 15 centimeters
USING LIGHT DETECTION DATA IN SIMULATION SYSTEMS IS PART OF A GROWING
TREND TO FIND NEW WAYS TO BENEFIT FROM THE TECHNOLOGY.
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