NASA’s CASALS Tests a Fuller View of Earth in 3D
A new laser-mapping prototype is aiming to fill the spaces between satellite measurements.
NASA’s CASALS prototype is pursuing a more complete three-dimensional view of forests and terrain. An October 21 technology update describes an airborne instrument that steers laser light by changing its wavelength, with further development still needed before a space-ready version.
The engineering idea is unusually elegant. Instead of moving mirrors to point a beam, the system sends different wavelengths through an optical grating. Diffraction directs those pulses to different positions, building a swath of measurements across the flight path. NASA reports that an airborne prototype flew in November 2024; the newly published account should not be mistaken for a satellite launch. Read NASA’s CASALS update.
Why do those measurements matter? A forest has depth as well as an outline. A conventional view from above can show the shape of a canopy, but understanding the distribution of vegetation requires information about height and structure. The University of Maryland’s GEDI mission overview describes laser measurements of canopy height, vertical structure and ground elevation, with applications ranging from forest inventories to wildlife habitat conservation.
GEDI also makes the sampling challenge tangible. Its three lasers generate eight observation tracks. The footprints are approximately 25 meters across, separated by about 60 meters along a track and roughly 600 meters between tracks. Those measurements are valuable, but the spacing helps explain why researchers continue developing ways to observe the areas between them. A reader looking at a finished map should ask which features were measured directly and which were estimated between observations.
Another established example is ICESat-2. Its ATLAS instrument measures the round-trip travel time of laser photons. Combined with the spacecraft’s position, that timing allows scientists to calculate surface heights. The mission splits a laser into six beams arranged in three pairs, a configuration that helps measure slope. Its targets include ice sheets, sea ice and forests, showing how the same basic measurement principle can serve very different scientific questions.
CASALS explores a different way of distributing those measurements. NASA’s update includes a visualization from a November 12, 2024 flight over Delaware’s Great Cypress Swamp. The colors distinguish canopy tops, ground and near-ground vegetation. NASA says wider coverage and onboard processing are among the next improvements; the team is targeting another flight in the ASCENT campaign in summer 2027.
NASA CASALS visualization of Great Cypress Swamp, Delaware, from a November 12, 2024 flight. Credit: NASA.
The broader ASCENT program plans coordinated airborne observations using radar, lidar and stereo imaging. NASA lists campaigns for the East Coast, West Coast and Costa Rica, with the resulting data intended to support science and modeling of space-based performance. Bringing different sensors together also creates an opportunity to compare what each method captures well rather than expecting one instrument to answer every question.
For readers following Earth technology, the useful milestone is a demonstrated prototype with a clearly described next stage. The questions now concern coverage, processing and the transition from aircraft to orbit. More detailed maps will be most valuable when the measurements behind them, and the limits of those measurements, remain just as visible as the finished image. That is a practical standard for judging the promise of any new mapping instrument.
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NASA’s CASALS prototype is pursuing a more complete three-dimensional view of forests and terrain. An October 21 technology update describes an airborne instrument that steers laser light by changing its wavelength, with further development still needed before a space-ready version.