News
Jul 17, 2009
OpenTopography is pleased to release the LiDAR point cloud portion of the GeoEarthScope Intermountain Seismic Belt data set. This release means that point cloud, tile DEMs, and Google Earth image hillshade overlays for the Intermountain Seismic Belt LiDAR project are all now available via the OpenTopography Portal.
The GeoEarthScope Intermountain Seismic Belt (ISB) LiDAR project includes high resolution LiDAR topography data collected in tectonically active regions of Utah and Wyoming, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and the Nephi segment (southern strand) of the Wasatch... more
Jun 29, 2009
In our ongoing effort to improve the ability to visualize and interact with outputs from the OpenTopography custom digital elevation model system, we have now made it possible to view the hillshade products directly in Google Earth without leaving the browser. Now, in addition to the hillshade browse images and Google Earth KMZ files, you'll see a link to "View KMZ file in Browser" on your results page. Clicking this link launches a pop-up window showing a hillshade of your custom DEM loaded directly in the browser:
This new feature requires the Google Earth Browser plug-in and should be... more
Jun 15, 2009
As part of the OpenTopography team's ongoing exploration of cloud-based LiDAR data management and processing, we have been awarded an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Research Grant via the AWS in Education program. The grant provides OpenTopography free access to AWS cloud resources and will give us another platform upon which to explore how cloud computing can be applied to massive geospatial datasets such as LiDAR topography. This work falls under the National Science Foundation Cluster Exploratory (CluE) program grant - "Performance Evaluation of On-Demand Provisioning of Data Intensive... more
Jun 11, 2009
Earth science educators at the community college and undergraduate level are invited to participate in a workshop to be held at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, August 5-7, 2009 on utilizing high-resolution topography and the OpenTopography Portal in the classroom. The goal of this workshop is to explore how these real world, cutting-edge, digital topographic data could be used in the classroom to allow students to explore geologic processes, landforms, and natural hazards. The workshop announcement is below or can be downloaded as a PDF.
Teaching Earth Science With High-Resolution... more
May 7, 2009
We are pleased to announce the availability of new GeoEarthScope airborne LiDAR data products from the Intermountain Seismic Belt (ISB) project! This release includes high resolution LiDAR topography data collected in tectonically active regions of Utah and Wyoming, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and the Nephi segment (southern strand) of the Wasatch fault. These LiDAR data can be explored and downloaded in several ways:
1. Google Earth. The easiest way to explore this dataset, users can view unfiltered (with vegetation) and filtered ("bare earth") hillshade images... more
Apr 24, 2009
NSF has issued a press release highlighting their recent funding in support of cloud computing activities (via the NSF Cluster Exploratory (CLuE) program). OpenTopography team members at SDSC received funding via CluE to support research into the application of cloud computing to the management and processing of LiDAR topography: "Performance Evaluation of On-Demand Provisioning of Data Intensive Applications"
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego are studying how to manage and process massive spatial data sets on large-scale compute clusters. The specific test case is... more
Apr 15, 2009
OpenTopography has released the final round of Northern California GeoEarthScope point cloud data. This release means that all point cloud and tile DEMs for the Northern California data set are now available for download via OpenTopography. New regions available in this release include:
Bodega San Andreas and adjacent marine terraces
Southern Hayward Fault
Paicines Calaveras
East Bay PUC data
All Northern California GeoEarthScope LiDAR data produts (point cloud, tile DEMs, and Google Earth hillshades) can be accessed via the OpenTopography Portal at: www.opentopography.org/data
We... more
Mar 4, 2009
A feature article entitled Illuminating Northern California’s Active Faults appeared in the February 17, 2009 issue of Eos, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union. The article highlights northern California GeoEarthScope LIDAR topography as well as access to those data via the OpenTopography Portal.
The full citation of the article is:
Prentice, Carol S, Christopher J. Crosby, Caroline S. Whitehill, J Ramόn Arrowsmith, Kevin P. Furlong, David A. Phillips, 17 February 2009, Illuminating Northern California’s Active Faults, Eos, Vol. 90, No. 7, p. 55-56.
A PDF of the article is... more
Feb 17, 2009
OpenTopography has released another batch of Northern California GeoEarthScope point cloud data. This release means that in addition to the full set of tile DEMs and the Google Earth-viewable hillshades, approximately 85% of the Northern California LiDAR point cloud data are accessible via OpenTopography. New regions available in this release include:
San Gregorio fault
Little Salmon fault
Maacama & East Willits faults
Rodger Creek fault
These data as well as other Northern California GeoEarthScope LiDAR data can be accessed via the OpenTopography Portal at: www.opentopography.org/... more
Feb 16, 2009
OpenTopography team members at SDSC have received a new grant from the National Science Foundation to explore new ways for academic researchers to manage extremely large data sets hosted on massive, Internet-based commercial computer clusters, or what have become known as computing “clouds". This research will use the LiDAR topography data hosted by OpenTopography as a test case and will focus on how cloud computing can aid the management and processing of massive spatial data sets.
Read the full news item at here: San Diego Supercomputer Center Begins Cloud Computing Research Using the... more
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