Study on Simulation for Spaceborne Full-waveform LiDAR Data

The model for simulating full-waveform LiDAR data was developed as a tool to explore the relationship between the LiDAR's design, performance and the terrain characteristics. It is a part of work with the overall purpose to develop a trade-off analysis tool for a spaceborne LiDAR system as a payload of a land-vegetation observation space mission. An end-to-end propagation of a spaceborne LiDAR sensing pulse through vegetation canopies is considered by the model. It consists of the modules characterizing the laser and the receiver optical system, atmosphere, land surface, optical filtering and detectors. This tool can be used to evaluate the effect of instrument configurations on the retrieval of land surface parameters, and to carry out trade-off studies during the instrument design.