Over 100 new 3DEP datasets available through OpenTopography

Aug 12, 2020

New lidar datasets throughout the US have been added to the publicly accessible, USGS 3DEP Amazon Web Services (AWS) bucket, and are now available through OpenTopography. This latest release expands the coverage by an additional 108 datasets, or 3.7 trillion new lidar points. The over 480,000 km2 of new data include coverage the following states: Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Vermont, and Wisconsin. Registered OpenTopography users with an account associated with a valid '.edu' email address will be able to seamlessly discover, download, and process this data via the standard OpenTopography interface. OpenTopography’s mission is to make high resolution topography easier to discover and use. By enabling the suite of OpenTopography’s processing tools on the USGS 3DEP point cloud data, we hope to provide easy access to this collection for a broader user community, effectively increasing the value and impact of this important data collection.

As always, if you have feedback on this new OpenTopography functionality we encourage you to contact us via email or to reach out via our social media channels.

3DEP Coverage in OT
Map showing newly released USGS 3DEP coverage (red polygons), adding to the previous 3DEP coverage (green polygons) that is now available through OpenTopography.


Pentagon
Point cloud colored by elevation of the Pentagon.


FenwayPark
Point cloud colored by elevation of Fenway Park in Boston, MA.


Crop Circles
Point cloud colored by intensity of crop circles in southern Arizona.


Airport
Point cloud colored by elevation of Reagan National Airport (DCA) with plane taking off in foreground.


Seneca Rocks
Ground-only point cloud colored by elevation points in Seneca Rocks, WV. Seneca Rocks is a popular rock climbing destination due to its sheer cliff faces.