Working With The LVIS

Dave Rabine, of NASA’s Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS) instrument team, is busy at work during the high-altitude flight on March 29, 2010. Credit: NASA/Jim Yungel

The Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) is an airborne, scanning laser altimeter. Therefore designed and developed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). LVIS operates at altitudes up to 10 km above ground. And is capable of producing a data swath up to 1000 m wide nominally with 25-m wide footprints. Also the entire time history of the outgoing and return pulses is digitized. Therefore allowing unambiguous determination of range and return pulse structure. Combined with aircraft position and attitude knowledge, this instrument produces topographic maps with dm accuracy and vertical height and structure measurements of vegetation.