OpenTopography Blog

Information and discussion related to high-resolution LiDAR topography for the Earth sciences

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Category: Resources

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LiDAR 101 Video

Posted on Thu, April 01, 2010 by C. Crosby in Education • Resources

I just stumbled upon this LiDAR 101 video, produced by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at University of Georgia, while Googling for something else.  In ~13 minutes, it does a nice job of summarizing LiDAR technology, data products, the costs associated with acquiring data, and various applications.  It is worth a watch if you are looking for a quick crash-course in LiDAR or need a video to show in the classroom:

Are there other good introduction to LiDAR videos out there?  Leave a comment if you are aware of others.

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Geomorphology: Understanding earth surface processes from remotely sensed digital terrain models

Posted on Tue, January 19, 2010 by C. Crosby in Publications • Resources

I’m a bit late on this, but the December 1, 2009, Geomorphology special volume: Understanding earth surface processes from remotely sensed digital terrain models, edited by Paolo Tarolli, J Ramon Arrowsmith and Enrique Vivoni is an excellent collection of papers related to the study of geomorphic processes with terrestrial laser scanning, airborne lidar, and satellite-based topographic remote sensing. 

Ramon kindly provides a link to the volume’s preface for those who are interested.

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Canaan Valley Institute offers LiDAR acquisition and processing at cost to academic researchers

Posted on Fri, May 01, 2009 by C. Crosby in Data • News • Resources

I received this message from Paul Kinder at the Canaan Valley Institute (CVI) regarding their ability to provide LiDAR and digital imagery data acquisition and processing at cost to academic researchers and institutions.  More information about CVI’s LiDAR program can be found at http://www.canaanvi.org/canaanvi_web...Lidar&id=576:

Canaan Valley Institute (CVI) http://www.canaanvi.org , a non-profit, non-advocacy, organization established in WV in 1995 is pleased to announce the availability of airborne LiDAR and digital imagery data acquisition and processing at cost to academic researchers and institutions.  In 2005, CVI obtained and modified a Piper Navajo twin engine aircraft to accommodate an Optech Airborne Laser Terrain Mapper (ALTM) with an integrated Applanix DSS 4k by 4k digital camera.  Over the past four years CVI has surveyed over 2 million acres producing bare earth DEM (15 cm vertical accuracy), all points terrain models, 1 – 2 ft contours, floodplain mapping, wetland mapping, forest mapping, etc.  CVI utilizes these systems and equipment in support of research, education, and technology transfer primarily relating to Appalachian water quality, stream restoration, and landscape ecology.  In an effort to maintain these systems for future use and promote the overall sustainability of the program, CVI is reaching out to academic partners to make these resources available virtually at cost, which is significantly below the cost in the private market.  Finally, consistent with its mission CVI envisions the use of these resources and data to promotion economic and environmental sustainability in our nation’s watershed. 

Contact:  Paul Kinder, Director of Science and Technology, Canaan Valley Institute
304-678-7200 mobile, 304-291-5320 Morgantown, WV Office,
Paul.kinder@canaanvi.org

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GEON Cyperinfrastructure Summer Institute for Geoscientists

Posted on Wed, April 29, 2009 by C. Crosby in News • Resources • Workshops

For the 6th year in a row, GEON will be hosting the Cyberinfrastructure Summer Institute for Geoscientists at San Diego Supercomputer Center, August 10-14.  Of particular interest to the OpenTopography community, CSIG ‘09 will feature a day devoted specifically to OpenTopo.  We will discuss the technology that makes OpenTopography work as well as brainstorm opportunities for integrating high-resolution LiDAR topography into the classroom.  CSIG is a great chance for earth scientists to gain exposure to the emerging information technology trends and resources that make community, web-based, systems like the OpenTopography Portal possible.

GEON is pleased to announce the 6th Cyberinfrastructure Summer Institute for Geoscientists (CSIG) to be held August 10-14 at the San Diego Supercomputer Center on the University of California, San Diego campus.  General and program information, as well as online registration is available at: http://www.geongrid.org/csig09

CSIG‘09 will expose participants to emergent Geoinformatics approaches to 3D and 4D integration of geoscience data.  Given the diverse interests of past CSIG participants, and the feedback that they provided, this year’s program will feature two “tracks” of instruction:

“Build”:  Overview of the technologies utilized to develop earth science cyberinfrastructure.
“Education”:  Utilization of cyberinfrastructure-based data systems and tools for earth science education and research.

Interested applicants at all levels are encouraged to apply, including graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and professionals in earth science and related disciplines. 

Course registration and accommodations are paid for with support received from the National Science Foundation (http://www.nsf.gov).  Selected participants will be responsible for funding their own travel to San Diego for the Institute. 

The Registration Deadline for the CSIG ’09 is June 7th.  Registration can be found at http://www.geongrid.org/csig09.

Please forward this information to anyone that may be interested in this year’s CSIG.

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Global Shaded Relief for Google Earth

Posted on Mon, April 06, 2009 by C. Crosby in Data • Google Earth • Resources

The SRTM KML Project has released a very nice network-linked KML which displays shaded relief images derived from Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation models in Google Earth.  Their website reports:

This version covers the entire SRTM dataset (80% of the land on the Earth).  It is based on the SRTM V2 product.  A new “fill” algorithm was developed at CCIC, which significantly improved the cartographic quality of the layer without compromising the accuracy.

The global SRTM shaded relief KML file can be downloaded from: http://srtmkml.googlepages.com/

Via Google Earth blog

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LiDAR Textbook Available

Posted on Mon, March 23, 2009 by C. Crosby in News • Resources

A new textbook, Topographic Laser Ranging and Scanning, co-edited by Jie Shan and Charles K Toth is now available.  It is apparently the first textbook to tackle the topic of topographic LiDAR technology and processing.  Book summary:

This volume provides the first systematic, yet in-depth, introduction to the basic theories and principles of LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology and data processing, which over the past decade has been successfully used for topographic mapping and 3-D visualization. The information collected in these pages meets the needs of all those working across the many fields LiDAR is impacting, including electrical engineering, signal processing, navigation theory, pattern recognition, and machine learning. Edited by leading experts with broad backgrounds in LiDAR topographic mapping and written by highly regarded specialists, it expands the toolboxes of researchers with novel ideas beyond their own experience.

I don’t have a copy of the book, but based on the Google Books preview it seems like it could be an excellent resource for people trying to get up to speed on LiDAR topography.

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USGS Topo Maps for Google Earth

Posted on Mon, March 23, 2009 by C. Crosby in Data • Google Earth • Resources

The Google Earth Library has announced that they are in the process of importing all 50,000+ USGS topographic maps into KML format for use in Google Earth.  From the website:

A couple months ago I began a project to import all 50,000+ USGS Topographic Maps into Google Earth. This is a huge undertaking that will likely take me several more months to finish all 50 US States. These maps are intended to provide a free alternative to expensive commercial products that often cost $80 or more per state or charge monthly access fees.  Plus you get the benefit of using the topo maps with Google Earth.

The Topo maps are saved as individual KMZ files which must be downloaded in their entirety before they will be visible in Google Earth.  Most of the maps are less than 5 megabytes, but some are as large as 20 megabytes so the speed at which the maps load will depend greatly on the speed of your Internet connection.

Currently, topo quads are available for Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico.

Learn more and download the KML file at: http://www.gelib.com/usgs-topographic-maps.htm

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NCALM releases Google Earth-based LIDAR Data Distribution Center

Posted on Mon, November 17, 2008 by C. Crosby in Data • News • Resources

Today, Ionut Iordache announced the release of NCALM‘s new Google Earth-based LiDAR Data Distribution Center.  This new system is much improved over NCALM’s former means of distributing their public datasets and is likely to be very popular and successful.  Via a simple KML file downloaded from the DDC webpage, users can access footprints showing the extent of all datasets currently available, metadata, links to download standard digital elevation model products, and hillshade overlays that can be viewed directly in Google Earth.

I am currently working with Ionut to provide an overview of NCALM data on the OpenTopography Data Overview map as well as links to download the NCALM file directly from OpenTopography.  This collaboration will be the first step towards bring together access to the various public domain LiDAR topography data via the OpenTopography Portal.

Full email announcement:

We are pleased to announce the upgrade of NCALM’s Data Distribution Center (DDC) to a new Google Earth-based interface that will allow you faster and better access to all of our public LiDAR datasets.

This new interface, developed by NCALM at UC Berkeley, gives you the opportunity to explore our LiDAR datasets before making any download by visualizing the full resolution (1m) shaded relief maps on-the-fly as Google Earth geo-rectified image overlays (both the bare-earth as well as the “unfiltered” shaded relief maps, where available).

The compressed (zip) data tiles are provided in ArcInfo raster format and can be downloaded by visually selecting the tile footprint in Google Earth or batch downloaded for an entire project by accessing a special page (that lists all available data files) and using your favorite download manager program.

The DDC KML file can be stored on your computer for off-line browsing and accessing the meta-data.

You can access the Google Earth KML file and a short tutorial on how to use the interface at this URL:

http://ncalm.berkeley.edu
Check back soon on our DDC KML as we’re in the process of publishing more public LiDAR datasets from NCALM’s 2007 campaign as well as NSF seed money student projects.

PS: I apologize in advance if you receive this message multiple times.

Best Regards,
Ionut Iordache

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