Published 2007

EAARL Topography-Gulf Islands National Seashore-Mississippi

John C. Brock¹, C. Wayne Wright², Amar Nayegandhi ³, Matt Patterson⁴, Iris Wilson⁴ and Laurinda J. Travers⁵

¹USGS, FISC St.Petersburg, FL,
²NASA,Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA,
³ETI Professionals, USGS, St. Petersburg, FL,
⁴NPS, South Florida/Caribbean Network Inventory and Monitoring Program, Miami, FL,
⁵Eckerd College, Contracted to USGS, St. Petersburg, FL

Project Description

This Web site contains 30 lidar-derived bare earth topography maps and GIS files for the Gulf Islands National Seashore-Mississippi.

These lidar-derived topography maps were produced as a collaborative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Geology Program, FISC St. Petersburg, Florida, the National Park Service (NPS) Gulf Coast 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 and barrier islands for the purposes of geomorphic change studies, habitat mapping, ecological monitoring, change detection, and event assessment. 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 subaerial and submarine topography wthin 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 costal resource managers.

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