OVERVIEW OF THE TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEM CARBON MONITORING SATELLITE LASER ALTIMETER

Abstract. The Terrestrial Ecosystem Carbon Monitoring satellite will be the first satellite of China with multi-beams laser altimeter and repetition frequency equal to GLAS on the world first laser altimetry satellite ICESat, but smaller diameter than GLAS. This satellite will be a milestone of Chinese satellite laser altimetry from single elevation control application to multi-scene applications, such as the forest height, water level measurement and so on. In this paper, the basic parameters of multi-beams laser altimeter on the terrestrial ecosystem carbon monitoring satellite are introduced and compared with other satellite laser altimeters, especially the GLAS and CALIOP, and the working mode is illustrated, which is equal to the GF-7 satellite but different to ICESat. The laser altimetry data products and data processing flow to the standard product is designed. Moreover, the geometric calibration method without field site for the multi-beams full waveform laser altimeter is proposed, which will be continued and improved from the GF-7 satellite laser altimeter geometric calibration without field by the terrain matching and waveform matching, and the high resolution multi-spectral nadir camera will be calibrated and used as the new footprint image with more high resolution and spectral information. The simulated sample data is introduced and illustrated for better understanding of the satellite laser altimetry data. At last, the application of this satellite laser altimetry data product is prospected, and the standard product SLA03 will be produced and released in the Land Satellite Remote Sensing Application Center.