GeoEarthScope airborne LiDAR data acquisition in southern/eastern California

GeoEarthScope SoCal LiDAR Project

The data acquisition field campaign for the GeoEarthScope southern/eastern California airborne LiDAR project began on March 31, 2008.

Over the course of several weeks we plan to image more than 1200 square kilometers using high resolution airborne laser swath mapping (ALSM), as was pioneered by the B4 LiDAR project in 2005. A Google Earth KMZ file showing the planned flight zones is attached to this email and will also be available from the UNAVCO website as indicated below. Targets were identified by the GeoEarthScope LiDAR working group as led by Professor James Dolan at USC and other members of the community.

LiDAR data will be collected and processed by the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM). Project information such as target scheduling, maps, and flight information is available by visiting the NCALM website at http://www.ncalm.org and clicking on the "Current Field Campaign Calendar" link below the photo on the front page.

Supplementary geodetic control and data analysis will be performed by Ohio State University. Project support is also being provided by the PBO Southern California office, the UNAVCO Facility, and the USGS Pasadena office. When data products become available they will be distributed by Arizona State University and the San Diego Super Computer facility. Hight rate GPS ground control data will primarily be collected by local continuously operating geodetic networks including PBO, NUCLEUS and SCIGN, though supplemental campaign sites will be deployed as needed.

GeoEarthScope, managed at UNAVCO, is a component of the EarthScope Facility project that includes the acquisition of aerial and satellite imagery and geochronology. EarthScope is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and conducted in partnership with the US Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA. This is the second major GeoEarthScope airborne LiDAR project to date, the first being the northern California LiDAR project flown in 2007. Additional GeoEarthScope airborne LiDAR projects planned for 2008 include campaigns in the Pacific Northwest, in the Intermountain Seismic Belt (including Yellowstone), and in Alaska.

For additional information as well as updates from the field please visit http://unavco.org/geoearthscope.

Best regards,
David Phillips and the GeoEarthScope LiDAR team