LIDAR - technology of obtaining and processing information about remote objects by means of active optical systems utilizing the phenomenon of reflection of light and its dispersion in transparent and translucent media.
The lidar instrument as is, as a minimum, an active optical range finder. Scanning lidars in machine vision systems form a two-dimensional or three-dimensional picture of the surrounding space. "Atmospheric" lidars are able not only to determine the distance to opaque reflecting the objectives, but also to analyze the properties of a transparent medium, scattering light. A variety of atmospheric lidar Doppler lidars are determining the direction and velocity of air flow in different layers of the atmosphere.
Well-established translation LIDAR as the laser radar is not entirely correct, since in the short-range systems (eg, for work on the premises), the main properties of the laser: coherent, high density and instantaneous power of radiation - no demand, the emitters of light in such systems can serve as conventional LEDs. However, the main uses of technology (study of the atmosphere, Geodesy and Cartography) with a range of hundreds of meters to hundreds of miles, the use of lasers is inevitable.