ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the reader an account of the technology of airborne and spaceborne laser profilers and scanners as it exists at the end of 2007. It provides airborne and spaceborne laser profilers. The development of the profiling technology and methodology was an important step that led eventually to the development of the airborne laser scanners that are in widespread use for topographic mapping purposes. The coverage of airborne laser scanners will be subdivided into two parts—those used for topographic mapping and bathymetric mapping operations respectively. For a number of users, a big attraction of the airborne laser profiler is its very much lower cost, even though its coverage is more limited than that of the airborne laser scanner. In the case of spaceborne platforms, given the great distances and very high speeds at which these platforms orbit the Earth only laser profilers can be operated from them.
