NOAA Coastal Lidar Data

NOAA Coastal Lidar Data offers a comprehensive collection of lidar projects focused on the coastal regions of the United States. Lidar technology precisely measures the 3-dimensional location of objects, including the Earth's surface, using laser pulses typically from airborne platforms. The datasets consist of point clouds, where each point is attributed with information like the object type it reflected from, reflection intensity, and other system-dependent metadata. This valuable data supports various applications, including climate analysis and disaster response efforts.

The data is primarily provided in Entwine Point Tiles (EPT) format, which offers a lossless, streamable octree of the point cloud, and in LAZ format. Datasets are maintained within their original project structures, and users should exercise care when merging different projects. The coordinate reference system for EPT data typically uses NAD83(2011) UTM zones, while LAZ data uses geographic coordinates. Vertical datums are orthometric and area-appropriate, such as NAVD88 for the mainland U.S. The geoid model used is indicated in the dataset resource name.

This open-access data is disseminated through NODD and is available for public use. It is periodically updated as new data becomes available, ensuring a growing and relevant resource for researchers and practitioners. The data is hosted on the Registry of Open Data on AWS, making it easily discoverable and accessible.