Time Resolved Lidar Fluorosensor operating from helicopter

Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) techniques are earning more and more interest in remote sensing applied to pollution detection and monitoring of water and air, allowing the characterization of the polluttant factors by qualitative and quantitative analysis. The possibility to perform environmental surveys from helicopters, that are platforms able to operate in critical conditions and with a reduced logistic support, allowing both measurements on quite large areas and measurements on precise points by hovering, makes this kind of sensors more and more interesting as scientific tools to be used in support of legal or political actions. Agusta is making a Time Resolved Lidar Fluorosensor (TRLF) compatible with the helicopter. This TRLF, unique in the world in its conceptual configuration, has been jointly designed and realized by JRC-Ispra and CISE-Milano; Agusta is performing validation tests in order to assess the applications operating it from an AB 412 and verifying the helicopter compatibility. This sensor is particularly characterization (identification) and water column parameters.