Please join the Department of Physics and Astronomy for a presentation entitled "3D Mapping Using Photon Counting Laser Radar" by Dr. Emily Peterson from 12:10 - 1 pm on Tuesday, April 4. The talk will take place in CNS 206/208 or over Zoom (please contact Jerome Fung, jfung@ithaca.edu, for the link). Pizza will be served!
3D Mapping Using Photon Counting Laser Radar
Emily Peterson, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Capable of collecting 3D imagery from an altitude of 25,000 feet and at an incredible area coverage rate (400 km2/hr at 25 cm resolution), the Multi-look Airborne Collector for Human Encampment and Terrain Extraction (MACHETE) is a ladar system designed to uncover hidden activity in heavily foliated areas. The airborne platform sends down high-energy, narrow laser pulses, some of which travel to the ground through openings in the tree canopy and reflect back toward the system; this light is collected by a receiver telescope and focused onto two 16-kilopixel Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode detector arrays. A timing circuit measures the arrival time of the returning pulses; these times are correlated with measurements of MACHETE’s altitude and pointing angle to produce a geolocated 3D point-cloud image of the area below. This image can then be digitally “defoliated” to reveal the structures underneath. MACHETE has been used in hundreds of sorties overseas.
Dr Emily Peterson is a sensor architect and project lead in the Active Optical Systems group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, working predominantly with lidar and IR remote sensing. She holds a BA in Physics from Bryn Mawr College and a PhD in physics from the University of Michigan, and has worked at Argonne National Lab and at Osram-Sylvania Lighting. This career path transitioning between academia, national labs, and industry has used her expertise in atomic and optical physics in a variety of applications; she is always happy to discuss how physicists contribute across broad professional contexts.