抄録
The earth observation by satellite becomes more important with the increase of attention to the global environment. The satellite observation started with the weather, a field of atmospheric science, and the satellite weather observation has become operational. However, the recent development of satellite sensors was on the image sensors for land and ocean. Atmospheric sensors are most important among future sensors to be developed for the EOS(Earth Observing System) program. Especially, laser altimeter and lidar (laser radar) gather a lot of attention, because of the ability of direct range measurement and the good vertical range resolution. In this article, the history of space lidar project by NASA and ESA, space shuttle lidar experiment (LITE), and space lidar program will be presented as well as the long-path absorption between the earth and the satellite.
