The arrival of airborne Lidar, also referred to as airborne laser scanning (ALS), has revolutionized area-wide 3D data acquisition of topography, bathymetry, vegetation, buildings and infrastructure. This article presents an overview of the progress made since then in both sensor and aircraft technology. It also highlights how ongoing miniaturization has recently enabled the application of Lidar on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), resulting in ultra high-resolution 3D point clouds with centimetre precision. From Single to Multiple Pulses in the Air Current trends include a steady increase in the measurement rate, achievements in full-waveform processing, the spread of multispectral and topo-bathymetric laser...
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