Temporal pulse spreading of a return lidar signal.

Most spaceborne lidar applications use cross-track or conical scanning to ensure a global coverage of the investigated areas: the return signal of laser pulses shot at an angle with the nadir is biased by a slanting effect that induces a temporal spreading of the received signal as compared with the return signal of a nadir shot. This paper gives the basic formulas of the return signal for both a topographic target (laser range finders) and a diffuse target (atmospheric lidars).