News
Jun 9, 2020
New lidar datasets throughout the US have been added to the publicly accessible, USGS 3DEP Amazon Web Services (AWS) bucket. This latest release expands the coverage by an additional 81 datasets, or 2.6 trillion lidar points over 550,000 km2 covering the following states: Alaska, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin. Registered OpenTopography users with an account associated with a valid '.edu' email address will... more
Jun 5, 2020
OpenTopography is pleased to announce the release of a new lidar dataset covering approximately 58 km within Utah. The data were collected as part of NCALM's seed grant program for Cole Speed at the University of Texas. NCALM is an NSF-funded center that supports the use of airborne laser mapping technology (a.k.a. lidar) in the scientific community and is jointly operated by the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston and the Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley. OpenTopography is the... more
May 8, 2020
The Klamath River Renewal project is a collaborative, multi-agency project that aims to restore the health of the Klamath River in southern Oregon and northern California through the the removal of four hydroelectric dams. Lidar, sonar, and photogrammetry data have been collected along the river to provide a baseline dataset of topography and hydrology of the river before the dams are removed. Once the dams are removed, a second data collection will occur to help monitor changes in ecology, hydrology, and geomorphology along the river.
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Topographic Data Set: Klamath River,... more
May 7, 2020
OpenTopography is pleased to announce the release of three new datasets covering areas of California, and Mexico. These datasets were collected by NCALM, an NSF-funded center that supports the use of airborne laser mapping technology (a.k.a. lidar) in the scientific community and is jointly operated by the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston and the Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley. OpenTopography is the primary distributor of NCALM data
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High Resolution Topography... more
May 4, 2020
Given the necessity for online and remote learning on account of the coronavirus pandemic, we have designed an exercise for structural geology classes where students learn about the classical Painted Canyon site near the Southern San Andreas Fault, California, by analyzing a point cloud of a fold located near the fault. This activity is designed to serve as an alternative to typical field activities with a structural geology emphasis. Like in the field, students must design a strategy to collect data to answer a geologic question, but they also examine a point cloud using state-of-the-art... more
Mar 25, 2020
OpenTopography is pleased to announce the release of two new 2019 lidar datasets, collected by the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) and funded by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF EAR-1945781 & EAR-1945754), covering 293 km2 of the region impacted by the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence in southern California. The datasets cover a portion of the main surface fault ruptures of both of the M 6.4 and M 7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence, as well as the areas of non-tectonic ground deformation near Trona and Argus, CA... more
Feb 28, 2020
OpenTopography is pleased to announce the release of two new lidar datasets covering over 1100 km2. Both datasets were collected in 2018, and cover the Christchurch city area in the South Island, as well as the Palmerston North region in the North Island of New Zealand. These datasets are available through on ongoing collaboration between OpenTopography and Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), that makes OpenTopography the primary distribution platform for point cloud data collected as part of the LINZ national elevation program.
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Palmerston North, Manawatu-Whanganui, New... more
Feb 19, 2020
Access lidar via an OT+ subscription (for non-academic users).
This subscription provides access to lidar topography covering most of the US mainland, Hawaii, and territories as well as satellite data over the Arctic and Antarctic. This includes access to the USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) and NOAA Coastal Lidar.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) is an ambitious effort to complete acquisition of nationwide lidar (IfSAR in AK) by 2023 to provide the first-ever national baseline of consistent high-resolution elevation data – both bare earth and 3D point clouds –... more
Feb 10, 2020
OpenTopography is pleased to announce the release of a new lidar dataset covering about 518 km2 of New Zealand's North Island. Data were collected between 2015 - 2019, and the survey area covers the Huntly and Port Waikato regions. This dataset is available through on ongoing collaboration between OpenTopography and Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), that makes OpenTopography the primary distribution platform for point cloud data collected as part of the LINZ national elevation program.
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Huntly, Waikato, New Zealand 2015-2019
3D lidar point cloud colored by elevation... more
Jan 21, 2020
OpenTopography will be teaching high resolution topography (HRT) short courses this spring (April and May) in conjunction with meetings in Montana and Utah:
Lidar Data Analysis Applications in Water Resources, Natural Hazards, and Forestry April 6-7, 2020, Missoula, Montana. Offered as part of the 2020 Big Sky GeoCon Workshop Description: This two day course will provide an introduction to lidar data (point cloud and raster derivatives), processing, and analysis, with an emphasis on applications in water resources, natural hazards, and forestry. Day 1 will cover lidar technology and high... more
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