Sensors

Lidar flight planning, thermal pixel footprints, how much storage a mapping job needs, and how far away a drone stays visible.

Sensor planning beyond the camera: lidar swath and point density against the USGS 3DEP quality levels, the storage a mapping job needs, a thermal camera's pixel footprint and smallest measurable target, and how far a drone stays in visual line of sight. It is for crews flying lidar, thermal, and mapping payloads. Start with the tool for your sensor. The line-of-sight tool uses EASA guidance formulas for planning; it cannot promise you will see the aircraft against a bright sky or a busy background.

Planning and education aid. Not for primary navigation. Full disclaimer

I want to plan a lidar flight for a USGS quality level

Lidar mission planning
Swath, line spacing, and pulse density for a lidar flight, with the aggregate density over overlapping lines checked against the USGS 3DEP quality levels.

I want to estimate how much storage a mapping job needs

Dataset size estimate
An estimate of how much storage a mapping job needs: the raw images, the orthomosaic (uncompressed and over a compression range), and a lidar point cloud as LAS and LAZ.

I want to find a thermal camera's pixel footprint and smallest target

Thermal pixel footprint
How much ground or surface one thermal pixel covers at a distance, the smallest target you can measure reliably, and how far away you can be for a target size.

I want to know how far I can see my drone

Visual line of sight distance
How far you can keep a drone in visual line of sight by EASA guidance: attitude line of sight from its size, detection line of sight from visibility, and the smaller of the two, checked against your farthest point.