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EAARL Coastal Topography--Assateague Island National Seashore, Maryland and Virginia, 2002: Bare Earth

Metadata Updated: January 22, 2026

ASCII XYZ point cloud data were produced from remotely sensed, geographically referenced elevation measurements acquired cooperatively by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Park Service (NPS). Elevation measurements were collected over Assateague Island National Seashore using the first-generation National Aeronautics and Space Administration (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 60 meters per second at an elevation of approximately 300 meters, resulting in a laser swath of approximately 240 meters with an average point spacing of 2-3 meters. The EAARL, developed originally by NASA at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, measures ground elevation with a vertical resolution of 3 centimeters. A sampling rate of 3 kilohertz or higher results in an extremely dense spatial elevation dataset. Over 100 kilometers of coastline can be surveyed easily within a 3- to 4-hour mission. When resultant elevation maps for an area are analyzed, they provide a useful tool to make management decisions regarding land development.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date January 12, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 22, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 12, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 22, 2026
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_72aff93c-299a-4a94-a8fb-12be3781bc91
Data Last Modified 2020-10-13T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Datagov Dedupe Retained 20260122045119
Harvest Object Id 192200ad-8939-4f88-98b2-556f90951049
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -75.38897738, 37.85682683, -75.38897738, 38.32564756, -75.09094815, 38.32564756, -75.09094815, 37.85682683, -75.38897738, 37.85682683}
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash c1694d82f271b7488ee2dfa09e2bc88360656839f3e8f7409ddbecb5944779f0
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -75.38897738, 37.85682683, -75.38897738, 38.32564756, -75.09094815, 38.32564756, -75.09094815, 37.85682683, -75.38897738, 37.85682683}

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