Welcome to the virtual home of:
The Kansas State University
NPS LIDAR Map Production Project
A Department of Geography, Kansas State University
research project in collaboration with the
South Florida and Caribbean Inventory and Monitoring Network of the National Park Service
http://www1.nature.nps.gov/im/units/sfcn/
For more information about the K-State effort, please contact John Harrington, Jr
http://www.k-state.edu/geography/people/faculty/jharrin.html
or Judd Patterson
Since 1995, the National Park Service (NPS) has worked in cooperation with the Observational Sciences Branch at NASA Wallops Flight Facility to develop NPS resource management applications of airborne LIDAR (light detection and ranging) very high-resolution topographic surveys. In partnership with the National Park Service and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is collecting optical remote sensing data using a variety of sensors, including the NASA Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar (EAARL). The NASA Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar (EAARL), a temporal waveform-resolving, airborne green wavelength lidar, is designed to sense the highly resolved submarine topography and morphologic habitat complexity of shallow reef substrates. The data are being collected to advance research on methods for the investigation of coastal regions. This project will produce map products from processed EAARL LIDAR data, identifying and delineating suspect data areas, providing locations of subject areas for post processing by USGS staff, and after post-processing, creation of map products in a consistent manner depicting LIDAR elevation and bathymetry information, depth/elevation contours, and areas of management interest.
More information about EAARL is available at: http://soundwaves.usgs.gov/2001/04/
For an example of an EAARL application along the Platte River in Nebraska, visit: http://wwwbrr.cr.usgs.gov/projects/SW_Env_Fluid/Lidar.html
For an example of the use of EAARL following hurricane Katrina, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/missions/earth/f_lidar.html