A robust method for filtering non-ground measurements from airborne LIDAR data

This paper proposes a new filtering method of non-ground measurements from airborne LIDAR data through a Simultaneous AutoRegressive (SAR) analytical model and exploiting a Forward Search (FS) algorithm. In SAR models, with respect to classical spatial regression models, the correlation among adjacent measured points is taken into account, by considering two quantities for the measured dataset: a coefficient of spatial interaction and a matrix of point adjacency (binary digits for regular grids or real numbers for irregular ones). The method has been implemented using Matlab® language and applied either to differently simulated LIDAR datasets or really measured points, these last acquired with an Optech® ALTM 3033 system in the city of Gorizia (North-East Italy).