TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENT AND CHALLENGES IN SPACEBORNE LIDAR FOR EARTH SCIENCE

The NASA Earth Sciences Program is structured around six principal focus areas Atmospheric Composition, Carbon and Ecosystems, Climate Variability and Change, Earth Surface and Interior Structure, Water and Energy Cycle, and Weather - all of which can be augmented by Lidar observations of atmospheric, oceanographic, terrestrial, and cryospheric environmental parameters. In 2007, the National Research Council (NRC) Decadal Survey recommended an integrated strategy for Earth science and applications from space that included numerous recommendations for Laser and Lidar based observations. [1]. For the past 15 years, NASA's Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) [2] has invested in new technologies in the area of Lidar remote sensing to enable new Earth Science measurement capabilities. Much progress has been made, leading to new airborne and spaceborne instrumentation. However, significant challenges remain before the potential of Lidar can be realized.