Identification_Information: Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: U.S. Geological Survey Publication_Date: 2009 Title: EAARL Coastal Topography--Pearl River Delta 2008: First Surface Edition: first Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: remote-sensing image Series_Information: Series_Name: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series Issue_Identification: 417 Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Saint Petersburg, FL Publisher: U.S. Geological Survey Description: Abstract: A first surface elevation map (also known as a Digital Elevation Model, or DEM) of the Pearl River Delta in Louisiana and Mississippi was produced from remotely sensed, geographically referenced elevation measurements cooperatively by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the University of New Orleans (UNO), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Elevation measurements were collected over the area using the NASA Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar (EAARL), a pulsed-laser ranging system mounted onboard an aircraft to measure ground elevation, vegetation canopy, and coastal topography. The system uses high-frequency laser beams directed at the Earth's surface through an opening in the bottom of the aircraft's fuselage. The laser system records the time difference between emission of the laser beam and the reception of the reflected laser signal in the aircraft. The plane travels over the target area at approximately 50 meters per second at an elevation of approximately 300 meters. The EAARL, developed by NASA at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, measures ground elevation with a vertical resolution of 15 centimeters. A sampling rate of 3 kilohertz or higher results in an extremely dense spatial elevation dataset. Over 100 kilometers of coastline can be easily surveyed within a 3- to 4-hour mission. When subsequent elevation maps for an area are analyzed, they provide resource managers with a useful tool regarding land development. Purpose: The purpose of this project was to produce a highly detailed and accurate first surface elevation map of the Pearl River Delta in Louisiana and Mississippi for natural resource managers and research scientists. Supplemental_Information: Raw Lidar data are not in a format that is generally usable by resource managers and scientists for scientific analysis. Converting dense Lidar elevation data into a readily usable format without loss of essential information requires specialized processing. The U.S. Geological Survey's Coastal and Marine Geology (CMG) Program has developed custom software to convert raw Lidar data into a GIS-compatible map product to be provided to GIS specialists, managers, and scientists. The primary tool used in the conversion process is Airborne Lidar Processing System (ALPS), a multi-tiered processing system developed by a USGS-NASA collaborative project. Specialized processing algorithms are used to convert raw waveform Lidar data acquired by the EAARL to georeferenced spot (x,y,z) returns for "first surface" and "bare earth" topography. These data are then converted to the North American Datum of 1983 and the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (using the GEOID03 model). Each file contains data located in a 2-km by 2-km tile, where the upper-left bound can be assessed quickly through the file name. The first 3 numbers in the file name represent the left-most UTM easting coordinate (e###000) in meters, the next 4 numbers represent the top-most UTM northing coordinate (n####000) in meters, and the last 2 numbers (##) represent the UTM zone in which the tile is located (for example, fs_e123_n4567_18). The development of custom software for creating these data products has been supported by the U.S. Geological Survey CMG Program's Decision Support for Coastal Parks, Sanctuaries, and Preserves Project. Processed data products are used by the U.S. Geological Survey CMG Program's National Assessments of Coastal Change Hazards Project to quantify the vulnerability of shorelines to coastal change hazards such as severe storms, sea-level rise, and shoreline erosion and retreat. Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Multiple_Dates/Times: Single_Date/Time: Calendar_Date: 20080309 Single_Date/Time: Calendar_Date: 20080310 Single_Date/Time: Calendar_Date: 20080311 Currentness_Reference: ground condition Status: Progress: Complete Maintenance_and_Update_Frequency: None planned Keywords: Theme: Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: http://remotesensing.usgs.gov/ Theme_Keyword: Airborne Lidar Processing System Theme_Keyword: ALPS Theme_Keyword: Digital Elevation Model Theme_Keyword: DEM Theme_Keyword: EAARL Theme_Keyword: Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar Theme_Keyword: laser altimetry Theme_Keyword: Lidar Theme_Keyword: remote sensing Theme_Keyword: topography Place: Place_Keyword_Thesaurus: http://nationalmap.gov/ Place_Keyword: Pearl River Delta Place_Keyword: Louisiana Place_Keyword: Mississippi Place_Keyword: Northern Gulf of Mexico Stratum: Stratum_Keyword_Thesaurus: http://lidar.cr.usgs.gov/ Stratum_Keyword: First Surface Temporal: Temporal_Keyword_Thesaurus: http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/1104/temporal.html Temporal_Keyword: 2008 Access_Constraints: None Use_Constraints: The U.S. Geological Survey, University of New Orleans, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration request to be acknowledged as originators of this dataset in future products or derivative research. Point_of_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Person_Primary: Contact_Person: Amar Nayegandhi Contact_Organization: Jacobs Technology, U.S. Geological Survey, FISC, St. Petersburg, FL Contact_Position: Computer Scientist Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing and physical address Address: 600 4th Street South City: Saint Petersburg State_or_Province: FL Postal_Code: 33701 Country: USA Contact_Voice_Telephone: 727 803-8747 (x3026) Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 727-803-2031 Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: anayegandhi@usgs.gov Hours_of_Service: M-F, 8:00-5:00 EST Data_Set_Credit: Acknowledgment of the U.S. Geological Survey, Florida Integrated Science Center, as a data source would be appreciated in products developed from these data, and such acknowledgment as is standard for citation and legal practices for data source is expected. Sharing of new data layers developed directly from these data would also be appreciated by the U.S. Geological Survey staff. Users should be aware that comparisons with other datasets for the same area from other time periods may be inaccurate due to inconsistencies resulting from changes in photointerpretation, mapping conventions, and digital processes over time. These data are not legal documents and are not to be used as such. Security_Information: Security_Classification_System: Unclassified Security_Classification: Unclassified Security_Handling_Description: None Native_Data_Set_Environment: Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 2; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.2.2.1350 Data_Quality_Information: Attribute_Accuracy: Attribute_Accuracy_Report: The expected accuracy of the measured variables is as follows: attitude within 0.07 degree, 3-cm nominal ranging accuracy, and vertical elevation accuracy of +/-15 cm for the topographic surface. Quality checks are built into the data-processing software. Logical_Consistency_Report: Each file contains data located in a 2-km by 2-km tile, where the upper-left bound can be assessed quickly through the file name. The first 3 numbers in the file name represent the left-most UTM easting coordinate (e###000) in meters, the next 4 numbers represent the top-most UTM northing coordinate (n####000) in meters, and the last 2 numbers (##) represent the UTM zone in which the tile is located (for example, fs_e123_n4567_18). Completeness_Report: Several regions of the dataset are labeled as "No Data", which corresponds to a cell value of -32767 m in the GeoTIFF file. These "No Data" areas are a result of the survey not covering a particular region, optical water depth of greater than 1.5 Secchi disc depths, or the manual removal of Lidar processing artifacts. Positional_Accuracy: Horizontal_Positional_Accuracy: Horizontal_Positional_Accuracy_Report: Raw elevation measurements have been determined to be within 1-meter horizontal accuracy. Vertical_Positional_Accuracy: Vertical_Positional_Accuracy_Report: Elevations are vertically consistent with the point elevation data, +/-15 cm. Lineage: Source_Information: Source_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: U.S. Geological Survey Publication_Date: 2009 Title: EAARL Coastal Topography–-Pearl River Delta 2008: First Surface Edition: first Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: remote-sensing image Series_Information: Series_Name: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series Issue_Identification: 417 Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Saint Petersburg, FL Publisher: U.S. Geological Survey Source_Scale_Denominator: 1 Type_of_Source_Media: Point elevation measurements collected by the EAARL sensor. Source_Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Multiple_Dates/Times: Single_Date/Time: Calendar_Date: 20080309 Single_Date/Time: Calendar_Date: 20080310 Single_Date/Time: Calendar_Date: 20080311 Source_Citation_Abbreviation: none Source_Contribution: none Process_Step: Process_Description: The data are collected using a Cessna 310 aircraft. The NASA Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar (EAARL) laser scanner collects the data using a green (532-nm) raster scanning laser, while a digital camera acquires a visual record of the flight. The data are stored on hard drives and archived at the U.S. Geological Survey office in St. Petersburg, FL, and the NASA office at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The navigational data are processed at Wallops Flight Facility. The navigational and raw data are then downloaded into the Airborne Lidar Processing System (ALPS). Data are converted from units of time to x,y,z points for elevation. The derived surface data can then be converted into raster data (GeoTIFFs). Process_Date: 20080309 through 20080808 Process_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Person_Primary: Contact_Person: Amar Nayegandhi Contact_Organization: Jacobs Technology, U.S. Geological Survey, FISC, St. Petersburg, FL Contact_Position: Computer Scientist Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing and physical address Address: 600 4th Street South City: Saint Petersburg State_or_Province: FL Postal_Code: 33701 Country: USA Contact_Voice_Telephone: 727-803-8747 (x3026) Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: anayegandhi@usgs.gov Hours_of_Service: M-F, 8:00-5:00 EST Process_Step: Process_Description: Metadata imported into ArcCatalog from XML file. Process_Date: 20080808 Process_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Person_Primary: Contact_Person: Xan Yates Contact_Organization: Jacobs Technology, U.S. Geological Survey, FISC, St. Petersburg, FL Contact_Position: Metadata Specialist Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing and physical address Address: 600 4th Street South City: Saint Petersburg State_or_Province: FL Postal_Code: 33701 Country: USA Contact_Voice_Telephone: 727-803-8747 (x3086) Hours_of_Service: M-F, 8:00-5:00 EST Spatial_Data_Organization_Information: Indirect_Spatial_Reference: Tiling Index Direct_Spatial_Reference_Method: Raster Raster_Object_Information: Raster_Object_Type: Pixel Row_Count: 2001 Column_Count: 2001 Vertical_Count: 1 Spatial_Reference_Information: Horizontal_Coordinate_System_Definition: Planar: Grid_Coordinate_System: Grid_Coordinate_System_Name: Universal Transverse Mercator Universal_Transverse_Mercator: Transverse_Mercator: Planar_Coordinate_Information: Planar_Coordinate_Encoding_Method: row and column Coordinate_Representation: Abscissa_Resolution: 1.000000 Ordinate_Resolution: 1.000000 Planar_Distance_Units: meters Geodetic_Model: Horizontal_Datum_Name: North American Datum of 1983 Ellipsoid_Name: Geodetic Reference System 80 Semi-major_Axis: 6378137.000000 Denominator_of_Flattening_Ratio: 298.257222 Vertical_Coordinate_System_Definition: Altitude_System_Definition: Altitude_Datum_Name: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 Altitude_Resolution: 0.15 m Altitude_Distance_Units: meters Altitude_Encoding_Method: Explicit elevation coordinate included with horizontal coordinates Entity_and_Attribute_Information: Overview_Description: Entity_and_Attribute_Overview: Each pixel of the encoded GeoTIFF has an explicit elevation value associated with it. The GeoTIFF grid is encoded with a 1-meter resolution. Entity_and_Attribute_Detail_Citation: The variables measured by EAARL are distance between aircraft and GPS satellites (m), attitude information (roll, pitch, heading in degrees), scan angle (degrees), second of the epoch (sec), and 1-ns time-resolved return intensity waveform (digital counts). Z value is referenced to orthometric elevations derived from National Geodetic Survey Geoid Model, GEOID03. Distribution_Information: Distributor: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: U.S. Geological Survey Contact_Person: Project Manager Contact_Position: Project Manager Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing and physical address Address: 600 4th Street South City: Saint Petersburg State_or_Province: FL Postal_Code: 33701 Country: USA Contact_Voice_Telephone: 727-803-8747 (x3026) Hours_of_Service: M-F, 8:00-5:00 EST Resource_Description: DS 417 Distribution_Liability: This DVD publication was prepared by an agency of the United States Government. Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the U.S. Geological Survey, no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the display or utility of the data on any other system, nor shall the act of distribution imply any such warranty. The U.S. Geological Survey shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and (or) contained herein. Reference herin to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. Standard_Order_Process: Digital_Form: Digital_Transfer_Information: Format_Name: GeoTIFF Format_Specification: GeoTIFF Digital_Transfer_Option: Offline_Option: Offline_Media: DVD Recording_Format: DVD Fees: Vary Ordering_Instructions: Contact U.S. Geological Survey. Turnaround: Vary Custom_Order_Process: Contact U.S. Geological Survey for details. Available_Time_Period: Time_Period_Information: Multiple_Dates/Times: Single_Date/Time: Calendar_Date: 20080309 Single_Date/Time: Calendar_Date: 20080310 Single_Date/Time: Calendar_Date: 20080311 Metadata_Reference_Information: Metadata_Date: 20080808 Metadata_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Person_Primary: Contact_Person: Xan Yates Contact_Organization: Jacobs Technology, U.S. Geological Survey, FISC, St. Petersburg, FL Contact_Position: Metadata Specialist Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing and physical address Address: 600 4th Street South City: Saint Petersburg State_or_Province: FL Postal_Code: 33701 Country: USA Contact_Voice_Telephone: 727-803-8747 (x3086) Hours_of_Service: M-F, 8:00-5:00 EST Metadata_Standard_Name: FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata Metadata_Standard_Version: FGDC-STD-001-1998 Metadata_Time_Convention: local time Metadata_Extensions: Online_Linkage: http://www.esri.com/metadata/esriprof80.html Profile_Name: ESRI Metadata Profile