Application of Monte Carlo simulation in airborne modulated lidar for bathymetric detection

The sensitivity of lidar (light detection and ranging) and the contrast of immersed targets are strongly reduced by the volume backscattering clutter. To overcome this shortcoming it has been proposed to use a microwave modulation in association with an optical carrier at 532nm, which is called modulated lidar. This paper develops a Monte Carlo simulation for application of modulated pulse lidar (light detection and ranging) in bathymetric measurements. First, modulated light pulse propagation in ocean water is simulated by a Monte Carlo model. Second, the echo signal is processed by advanced mathematical tools like cross-correlation and numerical filtering. The simulation results reveal the capability of the modulation approach in suppressing the water backscattering and enhancing the target contrast for the bathymetric field. Furthermore, more simulation experiments are performed with various ocean depth to study the detection performance in different environment. Details of this simulation model, in addition to the simulation results are presented.