Airborne3DimagewhichintegratesGPS,attitudemeasurementunit(AMU),scanninglaserrangefinder(SLR)andspectralscannerhasbeendevelopedsuccessfully.ThespectralscannerandSLRusethesameopticalsystemwhichensureslaserpointtomatchpixelseamlessly.Thedistinctiveadvantageof3Dimageisthatitcanproducegeo_referencedimagesandDSM(digitalsurfacemodels)imageswithoutanygroundcontrolpoints(GCPs).ItisnolongernecessarytosurveyGCPsandwithsomesoftwaresthedatacanbeprocessedandproducedigitalsurfacemodels(DSM)andgeo_referencedimagesinquasi_real_time,therefore,theefficiencyof3Dimageis10～100timeshigherthanthatoftraditionalapproaches.Theprocessingprocedureinvolvesdecomposingandcheckingtherawdata,processingGPSdata,calculatingthepositionsoflasersamplepoints,producinggeo_referencedimage,producingDSMandmosaicingstrips. Theprincipleof3Dimageisfirstintroducedinthispaper,andthenwefocusonthefastprocessingtechniqueandalgorithm.Theflighttestsandprocessedresultsshowthattheprocessingtechniqueisfeasibleandcanmeettherequirementofquasi_real_timeapplications.
