# Launch Monitor > Canonical: https://pinflag.io/glossary/launch-monitor ## Launch Monitor URL: https://pinflag.io/glossary/launch-monitor > A launch monitor is a device that uses radar or camera sensors to measure a golf ball's flight characteristics — data like clubhead speed, launch angle, spin, carry, and total distance — for every shot it's pointed at. Launch monitors range from simple radar units to full dual-camera systems, but they all solve the same problem: replacing a guess like "that felt like 150 yards" with an actual measured number, shot by shot. That makes them one of the most reliable sources of per-club distance and [dispersion](https://pinflag.io/glossary/dispersion) data available to an amateur golfer. Because a launch monitor session happens in controlled conditions — flat ground, a known distance, no wind guesswork — the numbers it produces are usually treated as a golfer's most trustworthy baseline for [gapping](https://pinflag.io/glossary/gapping) a bag, even though on-course conditions like uphill lies, rough, and weather will always vary somewhat from a range session. PinFlag imports launch monitor sessions from common consumer and simulator devices, plus a mapped generic CSV for anything else, and fits a per-club dispersion profile from the data, flagging outliers rather than deleting them. That data carries Measured provenance, ranked as the top-priority dispersion source ahead of on-course or modeled estimates. See also: [How to Track Your Golf Stats](https://pinflag.io/guides/how-to-track-golf-stats)