LIDAR Software

LiDAR Softwares have added a new dimension in the arena of Airborne Laser Swath Mapping (ALSM) and laser altimetry. One of the major developments in Remote Sensing technology is the emergence of LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) technology. LiDAR is the Remote Sensing technology that can find the range and other information about a particular distant object by the means of measuring the properties of scattered lights.

There are various types of LiDAR Softwares available in the market. Some worth mentioning softwares are:

1. LiDAR XLR8R: This software is developed by Canadian Software developer, Ambercore Software Inc. This is basically for LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) data management, analysis and visualization tool. This LiDAR Software is characterized with the following features:
   • This facilitates the user batch processing and feature merger capability.
   • This software is also featured with enhanced pyramiding, 3-D visualization and Geo-referencing functionality for raster data.
   • This LiDAR Software allows unlimited LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) point data to get uploaded and processed.
   • This can able to generate Digital Elevation Model (DEM) very quickly from the acquired LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) data and allow its users to build, view, analyze and disseminate 3-D surfaces.
   • This software has an innovative algorithms for fast data processing and regularizing, user defined and optimized surface building parameters that helps to control the surface accuracy and precision.
   • This software is capable if both 2-D and 3-D modelling which facilitates in transparent modelling, multilayering, draping and seamless stitching.
   • Its can import and export data in various formats like ESRI & USGS.

2. LP360: This LiDAR Software is developed by Qcoherent Software. This software is largely used as the plug in for the ArcGIS environment. This LP360 LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) extension is a platform of integration of LiDAR data with the whole GIS (Geographical Information System) system. This LiDAR data can be viewed in format that the user like to. These formats are supported by ArcGIS™, including vector data, rasters and imagery.
   • The LP360 LiDAR Software exhibits the following features:
   • It provides an integrated extension for ArcMAPTM or ArcCatalogTM.
   • It has unlimited LiDAR data architecture i.e it allows limitless LiDAR data points to get uploaded and processed.
   • It only need a ArcViewTM license.
   • It can create LiDAR data layer in ArcMapTM.
   • It has a ArcMAPTM enabled LiDAR data properties.
   • It has inbuilt 3-D data viewer with the TIN facility.
   • It has an advanced LAS file management and has ASCII to LAS import wizard.
3. TopPIT (TopoSys Processing and Imaging Tools):

This software is mainly for the analysis and reprocessing of LiDAR and RGB/NIR data. LINUX is the best operating system for this application.

Apart from these softwares there are various other LiDAR Softwares that are commercially available in the market. They are as follows:

• IDL by Research Systems Inc.
• MATLAB by MathWorks
• Terrascan by Terrasolid

These softwares are very important since the raw LiDAR data i.e. x, y, z points can be imported and spatially rendered by these softwares.

As far as the integration of LiDAR dataand GIS (Geographical Information System) is concerned, the following LiDAR Softwares are important:

• ArcView by ESRI
• ARC/INFO by ESRI
• Surfer by Golden Software Inc.
• MapInfo by MapInfo Corp.
• ERDAS Imagine by Earth Resource Mapping Inc.

The demand for LiDAR Softwares are increasing day by day due to its several advantages. This is widely used for high resolution topographic mapping.