New EarthScope LiDAR data products from California and Washington

OpenTopography is pleased to announce the release of new EarthScope LiDAR topography data from southern California and Washington state. In southern California, this release includes data for faults in the Mojave (Lenwood, Helendale, Calico, Blackwater), eastern California (Panamint, Tin Mtn, Mud Hills, Hunter Mtn, Owens) and San Cayetano. In Washington, data are now available for the Yakima fold and thrust belt. The full data release announcement is below.

EarthScope lidar from the Panamint fault in Google Earth

ANNOUNCEMENT:

We are pleased to announce the availability of new EarthScope airborne LiDAR data products from California and Washington state.

With this release, DEM tiles and KML files from all California targets are now available! This includes imagery of faults in the Mojave (Lenwood, Helendale, Calico, Blackwater), eastern California (Panamint, Tin Mtn, Mud Hills, Hunter Mtn, Owens) and San Cayetano. Of these new targets, point cloud data are currently online for Panamint, Ash Hill, Tin Mtn and San Cayetano, with point data for all remaining targets to follow shortly.

Also with this release, KML files and point cloud data from the Yakima fold and thrust belt in Washington are now available. DEM tiles will follow shortly.

EarthScope LiDAR data are freely available from the OpenTopography portal at http://opentopography.org in the following formats:

Google Earth hillshades: The easiest way to explore this dataset, users can view filtered ("bare earth") and unfiltered hillshade images within Google Earth from two different illumination angles. The Google Earth KMZ for the Alaska dataset features a new "slopeshade" illumination layer which provides an alternative visualization of the high relief landscapes in this region. The hillshade KMZ file is available for downloaded at https://portal.opentopography.org/dataCatalog?listAll=true

Standard DEM tiles: For more advanced applications, filtered ("bare earth," fg*) and unfiltered (ug*) 0.5 m resolution digital elevation models in Arc Binary grid format are also available for download as 1 km^2 tiles. Users can browse and download the available data via an interactive map available at https://portal.opentopography.org/datasets

OpenTopography also provides access to raw point cloud data and and web-based tools to process these data into custom DEM products: https://portal.opentopography.org/datasets

Best regards,
David Phillips and the EarthScope LiDAR team

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

Funding agency
- National Science Foundation

Project management
- UNAVCO

Data acquisition, processing and distribution
- National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM): LiDAR data collection and processing
- Ohio State University (OSU): GPS data collection and processing
- Arizona State University (ASU): data distribution and analysis tools
- San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC): data distribution and analysis tools