Retrieval of Airborne Lidar Misalignments Based on the Stepwise Geometric Method

In this paper, a new simple method for airborne LIDAR system misalignment calibration is described in detail. The method is especially designed for environmental surveys, such as beach mapping or glacier surveys. The proposed method, termed stepwise geometric misalignment determination is based on the relationship between the point clouds on a regular object, e.g. a flat top building, and the ground truth of the objects used for calibration. In order to extract the footprints on the objects, filtering is implemented before the calibration. The tests verify that the proposed method is feasible, and very effective. The calibration flight should be designed beforehand to ensure the accuracy of the retrieved boresight corrections. We outline some examples of application of the method by using airborne laser scanning data from Greenland, acquired by a Riegl laser scanning system.