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EAARL Coastal Topography--Dauphin Island, Alabama, 2010: Bare Earth

Metadata Updated: September 24, 2025

ASCII XYZ point cloud data were produced from remotely sensed, geographically referenced elevation measurements by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Elevation measurements were collected over Dauphin Island, post-Tropical Storm Bonnie (July 2010 tropical storm), using the 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 September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 24, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 24, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-4785cf30-df44-4b1a-a4d3-75330e677490
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
Harvest Object Id 484657c7-2543-462e-ad99-a871944a3cef
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -88.3510, 30.2260, -88.0827, 30.2569
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 85c3670f17de3fffabca3fcef0a99608778111a1bd96c0a5c62c82a7625ae88f
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -88.3510, 30.2260, -88.3510, 30.2569, -88.0827, 30.2569, -88.0827, 30.2260, -88.3510, 30.2260}

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