These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer called the NOAA Lake Level Viewer. It depicts potential lake level rise and fall and its associated impacts on the nation's coastal areas. The purpose of the mapping viewer is to provide coastal managers and scientists with a preliminary look at lake level change, coastal flooding impacts, and exposed lakeshore. The viewer is a screening-level tool that uses nationally consistent data sets and analyses. Data and maps provided can be used at several scales to help gauge trends and prioritize actions for different scenarios. The NOAA Lake Level Viewer may be accessed at: https://coast.noaa.gov/llv.

  This metadata record describes the Lake Superior digital elevation model (DEM), which is a part of a series of DEMs produced for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's Lake Level Viewer described above. This DEM includes the best available lidar, US Army Corps of Engineer dredge surveys, and National Park Service multibeam data known to exist at the time of DEM creation that met project specifications. This DEM includes data for Alger, Baraga, Chippewa, Gogebic, Houghton, Keweenaw, Luce, Marquette, and Ontonagon counties in Michigan; Cook, Lake, and St. Louis counties in Minnesota; and Ashland, Bayfield, Douglas, and Iron counties in Wisconsin.

  The DEM was produced from the following lidar data sets:
  1. 2007, USACE NCMP Topobathy Lidar: Lake Superior (Apostle Islands) and Lake Ontario (NY, WI)
  2. 2008, USACE NCMP Topobathy Lidar: Lake Superior (Wisconsin and Michigan)
  3. 2009, USACE NCMP Topobathy Lidar: Lake Superior (Duluth, MN)
  4. 2009, USACE NCMP Topobathy Lidar: Isle Royale (MI)
  5. 2009, USACE NCMP Topobathy Lidar: Apostle Islands, Wisconsin
  6. 2009, USACE Lidar: Duluth, MN and Superior, WI (Including shoreline in Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland, and Iron Counties)
  7. 2010, EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) Bathymetric Lidar: Lake Superior (MI, MN, WI)
  8. 2011, USACE NCMP Topobathy Lidar: MI/NY Great Lakes
  9. 2011, Northeast Minnesota / Arrowhead Lidar
  10. 2013, USACE NCMP Topobathy Lidar: Stamp Sands, Lake Superior (MI)
  11. 2013, USACE NCMP Topobathy Lidar: St. Marys River (MI)
  12. 2013, USACE NCMP Topobathy Lidar: Lake Superior (MI)
  13. 2015, FEMA Ashland County
  14. 2016, USACE NCMP Topobathy Lidar: Stamp Sands (MI)

  The DEM was produced from the following sonar data sets:
  15. USACE Harbor Dredge Surveys (9 surveys)
  16. 2013, National Park Service, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Multibeam Sonar
  17. 2014, National Park Service, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Multibeam Sonar

  The DEM is referenced vertically to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD88) with vertical units of meters and horizontally to the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83). The resolution of the DEM is approximately 3 meters.