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It's LIDAR. It's main benefit for finding archaeology earthworks is that it is possible to remove the vegetation from the results. So anything obscured by trees becomes visible for example.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidar#Airborne

It's just LiDAR.

They manipulate the data on a computer to explore the landscape (digitally removing tree canopies and things like that)

While you're technically correct, I think calling it "just" LiDAR is kind of underselling how amazing that technology really is!

MSM - even the BBC that are supposedly a bastion of good journalism - are generally terrible at covering science. My theory is that journalism now pays so poorly for most in the profession that all the decent graduates seek work elsewhere.