**Abstract**

Laser point cloud data have the characteristics of high elevation accuracy, fast processing efficiency, strong three-dimensional (3D) vision, and wide application fields. It will be one of the core datasets of the new generation national global topographic database. The rapid advancement of spaceborne laser earth observation technology allows the collection of global 3D point cloud data, which has brought a new breakthrough in the field of satellite-based earth observation, and its significant advantages of all-day time, high accuracy and high efficiency will lead the future development of space precise mapping technology. This chapter firstly introduces the principle and development status of satellite-based LiDAR technology, then presents the basic technical framework of satellite-based LiDAR 3D mapping, and analyzes the data processing methods of spaceborne photon point clouds, and finally, focuses on the application research in various fields including precise geolocation of combined with satellite images, fusion of multi-source topographic information, polar mapping, 3D objects reconstruction, and shallow sea topographic mapping, etc.

**Keywords:** global laser point cloud, global control point library, global 3D elevation data, 3D digital geospatial framework, global topographic database, 3D precise geometric positioning, multi-source topographic information fusion, polar mapping, 3D object reconstruction, shallow sea topographic mapping
