Digital Surface Model (DSM) from 2005 LiDAR for the Green Lakes Valley, Colorado

This 1m Digital Surface Model (DSM) is derived from first-stop Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) point cloud data from September 2005 for the Green Lakes Valley, near Boulder Colorado. The DSM was created from LiDAR point cloud tiles subsampled to 1-meter postings, acquired by the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) project. This data was collected in collaboration between the University of Colorado, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) and NCALM, which is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The DSM has the functionality of a map layer for use in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) or remote sensing software. Total area imaged is 35 km^2. The LiDAR point cloud data was acquired with an Optech 1233 Airborne Laser Terrain Mapper (ALTM) and mounted in a twin engine Piper Chieftain (N931SA) with Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) at a flying height of 600 m. Data from two GPS (Global Positioning System) ground stations were used for aircraft trajectory determination. The continuous DSM surface was created by mosaicing and then kriging 1 km2 LiDAR point cloud LAS-formated tiles using Golden Software's Surfer 8 Kriging algorithm. Horizontal accuracy and vertical accuracy is unknown. cm RMSE at 1 sigma. The layer is available in GEOTIF format approx. 265 MB of data. It has a UTM zone 13 projection, with a NAD83 horizonal datum and a NAVD88 vertical datum computed using NGS GEOID03 model, with FGDC-compliant metadata. A shaded relief model was also generated. A similar layer, the Digital Terrain Model (DTM), is a ground-surface elevation dataset better suited for derived layers such as slope angle, aspect, and contours. A processing report and readme file are included with this data release. The DSM is available through an unrestricted public license. The LiDAR DEMs will be of interest to land managers, scientists, and others for study of topography, ecosystems, and environmental change. NOTE: This EML metadata file does not contain important geospatial data processing information. Before using any NWT LTER geospatial data read the arcgis metadata XML file in either ISO or FGDC compliant format, using ArcGIS software (ArcCatalog > description), or by viewing the .xml file provided with the geospatial dataset.