RANGE-RESOLVED IMAGE DETECTION OF LASER-INDUCED FLUORESCENCE OF NATURAL TREES FOR VEGETATION DISTRIBUTION MONITORING

Fluorescence images of in vivo and natural tree leaves induced by the second harmonic of a Q-switched YAG laser have been remotely and direc tly detected by a lidar with a gated image-intensified charge-coupled- device (II CCD) camera. Simple spectroscopic measurements using a colo red glass filter showed that the fluorescence was caused by the chloro phyll in the leaves. The chlorophyll fluorescence was useful to distin guish trees and other objects. Tree locations up to a distance of arou nd 150m from the system were also determined with a range resolution o f 15m from the range-resolved fluorescence images. The results showed that this technique has a great potential use as a monitor of vegetati on distribution.