NASA’s CASALS Takes Aim at the Gaps in Earth’s 3D Maps
Tech & Science / Earth observation NASA’s CASALS looks between the laser tracks. A new way to scan the forest’s third dimension, and the work still ahead before orbit. Jeffrey Chen tests a lidar prototype at Goddard. NASA published this archival photograph with its 2024 CASALS award report. Photo: NASA · NASA editorial-use terms . NASA’s CASALS uses wavelength-steered lidar to scan terrain, but its airborne results are not yet a space mission. The news / October 21, 2026 A new instrument, not a new satellite The empty spaces on a scientific map can be easy to miss. A satellite may take remarkably precise measurements along its path while leaving much of the landscape between those paths unmeasured. NASA’s latest update on CASALS addresses that difference: the instrument is being developed to measure a continuous strip of forest and terrain, rather than collect only separated profiles that scientists must connect with other observations and models. In an October 21 technology rep...