We consider high mobility of the laser survey equipment of utmost importance. This gives us the opportunity of operating our system worldwide.

The way Lidar operates has much in common with a typical radar system. Lidar pulses a laser beam onto the periodically oscillating mirror and projects it downward. The laser beam hits an object and reflects back to the mirror.

The scanner receives reflections of all the objects within the area needing to be surveyed. High-speed counters measure the time interval between the pulse leaving the airborne platform and its return to the Lidar sensor. Lidar time-interval measurements are converted to distances and are correlated to the information recorded by a GPS receiver, Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), and ground-based GPS stations.

3-dimensional GPS solutions are used to position the laser scanner at each second or half second, while the IMU data is used to determine the system's orientation.

Our system is capable of discriminating among multiple returns from each pulse, measuring not only the position and geometry of the surface below the aircraft, but also the terrain under the vegetation cover.

Our methodology consists of three phases:

- Registering phase
- Intermediate phase
- Final phase

By using the registering, Intermediate and final phases, Southern Mapping have a distinct advantage of being able to identify and measure the position of on-ground objects, map the land surface under the vegetation layer and obtain spatial model of vegetation.

This important feature of the system is used with data processing algorithms to create a digital terrain model not affected by the vegetation.

We perform a calibration flight to ensure the system meets specifications. Preliminary data processing is conducted to ensure completeness and integrity. This acts as a quality control process thus ensuring that coverage is complete and that the equipment functions well.

Should there be a gap or unacceptable data quality detected, the crew will isolate problem areas and re-fly the affected sections before demobilising. The GPS and inertial data are processed together to achieve the best positional result.

Once the position and altitude of the aircraft are known at each period (1 or 0.5 -second intervals), this data is integrated with the laser reflections to provide a position for each point on the ground. The data is processed using the proprietary laser-processing software suite to produce an ASCII file of (x,y,z) coordinates.

Towards the final product output, various operations are performed over the collected survey data. These include the initial laser points computation, laser data classification points, objects recognition, digital photographs, thematic objects processing and others in accordance with the client's requirements.

All operations are performed in conjunction with a stringent quality assurance plan, which forms part of the contract. It is the final product of our services that sets us apart from other aerial surveying companies. We dedicate our efforts, by first ensuring that we fully understand our clients' needs and expectations. In so doing, we deliver quality solutions that assist you in maintaining efficiency of your business and professional forward-planning.