EAARL Topography-Padre Island National Seashore

Dataset Identification:

Resource Abstract:
Elevation maps (also known as Digital Elevation Models or DEMs) of Padre Island National Seashore were produced from remotely-sensed, geographically-referenced elevation measurements in cooperation with NASA and NPS. Point data in ascii text files were interpolated in a GIS to create a grid or digital elevation model (DEM) of each beach surface. Elevation measurements were collected in Texas, over Padre Island National Seashore, using the NASA Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar (EAARL), a pulsed laser ranging system mounted onboard an aircraft to measure ground elevation 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 beach at approximately 60 meters per second while surveying from the low-water line to the landward base of the sand dunes. The EAARL, developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) located at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, measures ground elevation with a vertical resolution of 15 centimeters. A sampling rate of 3 kHz or higher results in an extremely dense spatial elevation data set. Over 100 kilometers of coastline can be easily surveyed within a 3- to 4-hour mission time period. The ability to sample large areas rapidly and accurately is especially useful in morphologically dynamic areas such as barrier beaches. Quick assessment of topographic change can be made following storms comparing measurements against baseline data. When subsequent elevation maps for an area are analyzed, they provide a useful tool to make management decisions regarding coastal development. For more information on Lidar science and the Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar (EAARL) system and surveys, see http://ngom.usgs.gov/dsp/overview/index.php and http://ngom.usgs.gov/dsp/tech/eaarl/index.php .
Citation
Title EAARL Topography-Padre Island National Seashore
publication  Date   2007-01-01
Edition First
presentationForm  mapDigital
Series
Name Open File Report
Issue 2007-1431
other Citation Details  The USGS, in cooperation with the National Park Service (NPS) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), provides the coastal management community with usable digital elevation products. The USGS processes aircraft Lidar data (provided by NASA), develops software tools and algorithms to use and analyze the data and make products available to the coastal management community through a variety of media, including the internet, CD-ROMs, DVDs and data reports.
cited responsible party - publisher
organisation Name  USGS
Contact information
Address
, St. Petersburg, FL
cited responsible party - originator
organisation Name  United States Geological Survey, FISC St. Petersburg
cited responsible party -
organisation Name  
Contact information
Linkage for online resource
URL: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1431/start.html
Topic Category:  elevation
Keywords:
Theme keywords (theme):
Lidar
Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar
digital elevation model
elevation change
laser altimetry
derived surface
resource management
bare earth elevation
ALPS
Airborne Lidar Processing System
thesaurus name >
Title None
Theme keywords (theme):
distributions
bathymetry and elevation
thesaurus name >
Title Data Categories for Marine Planning
Theme keywords (theme):
altimetry
topographic mapping
thesaurus name >
Title Marine Realms Information Bank (MRIB) Keywords
Theme keywords (theme):
LIDAR
topography
digital elevation models
thesaurus name >
Title USGS Thesaurus
Location keywords:
Padre Island National Seashore
Texas
United States Gulf of Mexico
thesaurus name >
Title None
Stratum keywords:
bare earth topography
thesaurus name >
Title None
purpose:
One goal of the project is to produce highly detailed and accurate digital elevation maps (DEMs) of National Seashores and coastal parks for use as a management tool and to make these maps available to natural resource managers within the parks.
Browse image (thumbnail):
thumbnail file name:  ...
file type: JPG
thumbnail file description:  EAARL Topography-Padre Island National Seashore
Resource language:  eng; USA
Resource progress code:  completed
Resource Maintenance Information
maintenance or update frequency:  unknown
Constraints on resource usage:
Constraints
Use limitation statement:
The United States Geological Survey shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein. These data and related graphics are not legal documents and are not intended to be used as such.The information contained in these data is dynamic and may change over time. The data are not better than the original sources from which they were derived. It is the responsibility of the data user to use the data appropriately and consistent within the limitations of geospatial data in general and these data in particular. The related graphics are intended to aid the data user in acquiring relevant data; it is not appropriate to use the related graphics as data.The United States Geological Survey gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of these data. It is strongly recommended that these data are directly acquired from an USGS server and not indirectly through other sources which may have changed the data in some way. Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the United States Geological Survey, no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the utility of the data on another system or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. This disclaimer applies both to individual use of the data and aggregate use with other data.
Constraints on resource usage:
Legal Constraints
use constraint:  otherRestrictions
Other constraints
Use Constraints: Although the U. S. Geological Survey is making these data sets available to others who may find the data of value, U. S. Geological Survey does not warrant, endorse, or recommend the use of thes data for any given purpose. The user assumes the entire risk related to the use of these data. These data sets are not for navigational purposes. U. S. Geological Survey is providing these data "as is", and U. S. Geological Survey disclaims any and all warranties, whether expressed or implied, including (without limitation) any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will U. S. Geological Survey be liable to you or to any third party for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or exemplary damages or lost profits resulting from any use or misuse of these data.Acknowledgement of the U.S. Geological Survey, FISC St. Petersburg as a data source would be appreciated in products developed from these data, and such acknowledgement as is standad for citation and legal practices for data source is expected by users of this data. Sharing new data layers developed directly from these data would also be appreciated by U. S. Geological Survey staff. Users should be aware that comparisons with other data sets for the same area from other time periods may be inaccurate due to inconsistencies resulting from changes in photo interpretation, mapping conventions, and digital processes over time. These data are not legal documents and are not to be used as such.
Constraints on resource usage:
Legal Constraints
Access Constraints  otherRestrictions
Other constraints
Access Constraints: Any use of these data signifies a user's agreement to comprehension and compliance of the U. S. Geological Survey Standard Disclaimer. Ensure all portions of metadata are read and clearly understood before using these data in order to protect both user and U. S. Geological Survey interests. See section 6.3 Distribution Liability.
Spatial representation type code:  grid
Processing environment:  Native Dataset Environment: Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 2; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.1.0.722
Resource extent
Geographic Extent
Geographic Bounding Box
westBoundLongitude  -97.399643
eastBoundLongitude  -97.268904
northBoundLatitude  27.518209
southBoundLatitude  26.561368
Temporal Extent
Additional information on resource:
Raw Lidar data is not in a format that is generally usable by National Park Service resource managers and scientists for scientific analysis. Converting dense Lidar elevation data into a readily usable format without loss of essential information requires specialized processing. The USGS converts raw Lidar data into a GIS-compatible map product to be provided to National Park Service GIS specialists, managers, and scientists. The primary tool used in the conversion process is Airborne Lidar Processing System (ALPS), a multitiered processing system developed by a USGS/NASA collaborative for the use of topographic Lidar in coastal change assessment. Specialized processing algorithms are used to convert raw waveform Lidar data acquired by the EAARL to georeferenced spot (x,y,z) returns for "first return" and "bare earth" topography. These data are then converted to the NAD83 horizontal and NAVD88 vertical datum (using the Geoid 99 model). The final products are 2x2-km map tiles written out in a standard geotiff format with associated metadata information. These tiles are created for visual interpretation and regional quantitative analysis. Metadata files include the standard FGDC format.
Credits:
The U. S. Geological Survey, FISC St. Petersburg, would like to acknowledge NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for their cooperation and assistance in the development of the data. The U. S. Geological Survey would also like to acknowledege National Park Service management and personnel at Padre Island National Seashore.
point of contact - pointOfContact
individual Name Dr. John C. Brock
organisation Name  United States Geological Survey, FISC St. Petersburg
position Name Physical Oceanographer
Contact information
Telephone
Voice 727 803-8747 ext3088
Fax 727 803-2031
Address
600 4th Street South, St. Petersburg, Florida, 33701 Country USA
electronic Mail Address jbrock@usgs.gov
hoursOfService Monday-Friday, 8-5, EST
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Grid spatial representation

number of grid dimensions: 3
Grid axis property:
Grid Dimension
Dimension Name:  row
Dimension Size 2000
Grid Dimension
Dimension Name:  column
Dimension Size 2000
Grid Dimension
Dimension Name:  vertical
Dimension Size 1
cell geometry type:  area
transformation parameter availability: 
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Content information: feature catalog description

Included With Dataset  false
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Scope of quality information
scope level  dataset
Resource lineage description
AbsoluteExternalPositionalAccuracy
name Of Measure Horizontal Positional Accuracy Report
evaluation Method Description  Raw elevation measurements have been determined to be within 1.5 meter horizontal accuracy. Processing steps (grid interpolation) may introduce additional error which has not been tested at the time of this publication.
AbsoluteExternalPositionalAccuracy
name Of Measure Vertical Positional Accuracy Report
evaluation Method Description  Elevations of the DEM are vertically consistent with the point elevation data, +/- 15cm.
Completeness Commission
evaluation Method Description  unknown
Completeness Omission
evaluation Method Description  unknown
ConceptualConsistency
measure Description  unknown

Resource distribution information

Distributor
distributor contact - distributor
organisation Name  United States Geological Survey, FISC St. Petersburg
Contact information
Telephone
Voice 727-803-8747
Address
600 4th Street South, St. Petersburg, FL, 33701 Country USA
hoursOfService 8:30-5:00 M-F EST
contact Instructions
Call Office for Details
Standard ordering process
fees Vary
plannedAvailableDateTime  9999-01-01T00:00:00
Ordering Instructions  Access Instructions: Data can be downloaded via the World Wide Web (WWW) Ordering Instructions: Call USGS for details Custom Order Process: Call USGS for Details
Format
Format name GeoTIFF
Format version 
Digital Transfer Options
transfer Size 15.275
Linkage for online resource
name GeoTIFF
URL: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1431/HTML/data.html
link function 
Description 
Digital Transfer Options
Medium of distribution
name  dvdRom
medium Format  DVD-ROM

Metadata data stamp:  2017-01-24
Resource Maintenance Information
maintenance or update frequency:  annually
notes: This metadata was automatically generated from the FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata standard (version FGDC-STD-001-1998) using the 2012-06-20T17:21:00 version of the FGDC RSE to ISO 19115-2 transform.
Metadata contact - pointOfContact
individual Name Laurinda J. Travers
organisation Name  US Geological Survey, FISC St. Petersburg
Contact information
Telephone
Voice 727-803-8747
Address
600 4th Street South, St. Petersburg, Florida, 33701 Country USA
hoursOfService 8:30-5:00 M-F EST
contact Instructions
Call Survey for Details
Metadata scope code  dataset
Metadata language  eng; USA
Metadata character set encoding:   utf8
Metadata standard for this record:  ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data
standard version:  ISO 19115-2:2009(E)
Metadata record identifier:  fa223c62-7638-4bff-8a2f-fe453a3fdca5

Metadata record format is ISO19139-2 XML (MI_Metadata)