THE OPALS DATA MANAGER – EFFICIENT DATA MANAGEMENT FOR PROCESSING LARGE AIRBORNE LASER SCANNING PROJECTS

Abstract

The fast measurement rate of today's Airborne Laser Scanners results in billions of points for single ALS projects. Efficient algorithms and data management methods are, therefore, a precondition for successful project handling. The software package OPALS (Orientation and Processing of Airborne Laser Scanning data) was especially designed to meet those criteria. Central core of the package is the OPALS Data Manager (ODM). It provides both, fast spatial access to huge point clouds, as well as a flexible attribute schema to store additional point related quantities. Concepts of the spatial data organization and implementation details about the attribute handling are presented. Additionally, design rationales of the ODM, its file format and the system performance are described.