LIDAR

FARO® releases SCENE 2019

FARO® has announced the release of SCENE 2019, an advanced, integrated software platform that optimizes the FARO Focus Laser Scanner product family. SCENE 2019 is specifically designed to evolve the 3D reality capture, analysis and documentation experience across the public safety forensics segment for crash, crime, fire and security planning and Traceable Construction™ for Architecture, Engineering and Construction markets. www.faro.com

Sanborn announces version 2 release of GeoServe™ Lidar Viewer

After 2 years of successful deployment of the GeoServe™ Lidar Viewer and Quality Control (QC) Interface (first announced in 2017), Sanborn has now added new features to enhance clients’ ability to view and analyze lidar point cloud data immediately after initial processing. The GeoServe™ Lidar Viewer and QC Interface serves point cloud data through a user-friendly, web-based interface from a secure cloud environment. The Sanborn GeoServe™ Lidar Viewer delivers the following benefits:

▪ Provides ease and standard documentation for data quality review needed for contract monitoring and compliance

▪ Facilitates coordination between many data reviewers, even when geographically separated

▪ Instant access to online point cloud data for review by Sanborn Lidar clients And several more.. www.sanborn.com

Aerial LiDAR uses to measure snow cover

In a new study published in Remote Sensing of the Environment, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Desert Research Institute (DRI), the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and California State University described the first successful use of lidar to measure snow cover under forested canopy in the Sierra Nevada. In this study, researchers worked with NASA’s Airborne Snow Observatory to collect lidar data in the Sagehen Creek watershed of the Sierra Nevada by aircraft on three dates during the spring of 2016 when snow was present.

Analysis of the datasets revealed that the lidar was, in fact, capable of detecting snow presence or absence both under canopy and in open areas, so long as areas with low branches were removed from the analysis. On-the-ground measurements used distributed temperature sensing with fiber optic cables laid out on the forest floor to verify these findings.