This lidar-derived submarine topography map was produced as a collaborative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Geology Program, National Park Service (NPS) South Florida/Caribbean Network Inventory and Monitoring Program, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Wallops Flight Facility. One objective of this research is to create techniques to survey coral reefs for the purposes of habitat mapping, ecological monitoring, change detection, and event assessment (for example: bleaching, hurricanes, disease outbreaks). As part of this project, data from an innovative instrument under development at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, the NASA Experimental Airborne Advanced Research Lidar (EAARL) are being used. This sensor has the potential to make significant contributions in this realm for measuring water depth and conducting cross-environment surveys. High spectral resolution, water-column correction, and low costs were found to be key factors in providing accurate and affordable imagery to managers of coastal tropical habitats.

In-depth Resources

Report of the U.S. Geological Survey Lidar Workshop Sponsored by the Land Remote Sensing Program and held in St. Petersburg, FL, November 2002, by Michael Crane, Tonya Clayton, Ellen Raabe, Jason Stoker,Larry Handley, Gerald Bawden, Karen Morgan, Vivian Queija, OF 2004-1456, U.S. Geological Survey, 72 pages - Adobe PDF format