The project was started by Pacunam, a Guatemalan nonprofit organization, and carried out with help from the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping, which is based at the University of Houston. The lidar technology essentially allows researchers to spot bumps in the landscape. Most of the ruins look like rocky mounds — even in person, and to the naked eye — but experts can often identify a collapsed quarry, palace or street.

With help from supporters, Pacunam has spent more than $600,000 on this first phase of the lidar project, said Marianne Hernandez, the president of the board. The organization hopes to use the laser technology to map the entire Maya Biosphere Reserve.

But it is not only about protecting cultural treasures, Ms. Hernandez said. The project is part of a broad push to fight climate change, generate tourism dollars and prevent illegal activities like border trafficking and deforestation in protected areas.

“This is a Guatemalan effort,” she said. “We need to marry the interest in pursuing scientific stories with our interest in finding a sustainable model for the area.”

Ms. Hernandez began planning the project in 2015 with archaeologists like Marcello Canuto, director of the Middle American Research Institute at Tulane University. The laser-equipped planes flew over Guatemala in 2016. And when Dr. Canuto and his students finally saw the preliminary data about a year ago, “We could not peel our eyes off the T.V. screen,” he said.

“It’s being blind, and then being able to see.”