>Green lasers from the sky, scanning entire neighborhoods?
Lidar (alternatively spelled LiDAR or LIDAR) is an acronym for Light Detection and Ranging, a remote sensing method that uses laser light pulses to measure variable distances (aka ranges) to the Earth. Lidar is used to create high resolution three-dimensional representations of Earth's surface, including buildings, vegetation, and the ground.
Lidar systems can be attached to aircraft like airplanes, helicopters, or drones, to satellites, cars, ground-based or handheld devices, and you even may have a lidar scanner in your cell phone. Airborne lidar is typically used to collect data from a broad area. Ground-based lidar is known as terrestrial laser scanning and is often used to collect more localized and short-range data.
https://opentopography.org/lidar_basics