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Over the past 15 years the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and private industry have been developing airborne LiDAR systems based on arrays of Geiger-mode Avalanche Photodiode (GmAPD) detectors capable of detecting a single photon. The extreme sensitivity of GmAPD detectors allows operation of LiDAR sensors at unprecedented altitudes and area collection rates in excess of 1,000 km 2 /hr. Up until now the primary emphasis of this technology has been limited to defense applications despite the significant benefits of applying this technology to non-military uses such as mapping, monitoring critical infrastructure and disaster relief. This paper briefly describes the operation of GmAPDs, design and operation of a Geiger-mode LiDAR, a comparison of Geiger-mode and traditional linear mode LiDARs, and a description of the first commercial Geiger-mode LiDAR system, the IntelliEarth™ Geospatial Solutions Geiger-mode LiDAR sensor. |
