Profiling lidars. Marine lidar survey results and future directions for scientific and applied implementation

This paper reviews the principal results of recent studies conducted in Russian marine waters utilizing marine profiling lidars developed at the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences (IO RAS) and its Saint Petersburg branch. Field experiments with IO RAS shipborne and airborne lidars were carried out in the coastal zones of the Barents, Kara, Okhotsk, and Black Seas, as well as in Avacha Bay in the Pacific Ocean, and focused on addressing contemporary problems of lidar remote sensing.

The use of marine lidars for the assessment of hydrooptical characteristics of the near-surface layer, the detection and parameterization of internal waves, and the investigation of the effect of survey-track length on bathymetric lidar mapping in remote high-relief coastal areas are examined. A distinctive feature of the IO RAS systems (shipborne PLD‑1 and airborne APL‑3) — is their two-channel receiving subsystem, which enables separate recording of the polarized components of lidar signals. The implementation of the developed digital signal-processing modules has permitted automation of the lidar-surveying workflow.

The scientific relevance and practical importance of these issues underline the need to advance domestic remote-sensing technologies, in particular for lidar surveys conducted from autonomous, unmanned underwater, surface, and aerial vehicles.

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