The Waveform Model of Laser Altimeter System with Flattened Gaussian Laser

Abstract

The current waveform model of a laser altimeter is based on a Gaussian laser beam of fundamental mode, while the flattened Gaussian beam has many advantages such as nearly constant energy distribution on the center of the cross-section. Following the theory of the flattened Gaussian beam and the waveform theory of the laser altimeter, some of the primary parameters of the received waveform were derived, and a laser altimetry waveform simulator and waveform processing software were programmed and improved under the circumstance of a flattened Gaussian beam. The result showed that the bias between theoretical and simulated waveforms was less than 3% for every order mode, the waveform width and range error would increase as target slope or order number rose. Under higher order mode, the shapes of the received waveforms were no longer Gaussian, and could be fitted more precisely as a generalized Gaussian function with power bigger than 2. The flattened beam got much better performance for a multi-surface target, especially when the small surface is far from the center of the laser footprint. This article provides the waveform theoretical basis for the use of a flattened Gaussian beam in a laser altimeter.