Detailed maps of the US are available to the public.
Certainly PACOM is aware of anything in the area.
They also shouldn’t discuss sensitive information with the public.
I wrote that because it looked like the process I use when scanning stuff.
The laser is used to measure distances from the base to the peak. I imagine the color of a laser is determined by what it has to penetrate.
I would think that refraction plays into it. If you are mapping something through sea water it would require a different color than mapping through the air.
For example, if you are looking to track a submarine through a few hundred feet of seawater, I imagine you would use a scanning system like that. It would move back and forth and “changes” in returns would provide you with the moving image of whatever is below the water.
Pure speculation on my part.
And you are correct...PACOM is under no obligation to explain itself to us.
Honestly, I think its cool that we would be able to create the tech to do that.