U.S. Geological Survey 2009 first remote-sensing image U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 417 Saint Petersburg, FL U.S. Geological Survey http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/417/ A first surface elevation map (also known as a Digital Elevation Model, or DEM) of the Pearl River Delta in Louisiana and Mississippi was produced from remotely sensed, geographically referenced elevation measurements cooperatively by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the University of New Orleans (UNO), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Elevation measurements were collected over the area using the 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 50 meters per second at an elevation of approximately 300 meters. The EAARL, developed by NASA at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, measures ground elevation with a vertical resolution of 15 centimeters. A sampling rate of 3 kilohertz or higher results in an extremely dense spatial elevation dataset. Over 100 kilometers of coastline can be easily surveyed within a 3- to 4-hour mission. When subsequent elevation maps for an area are analyzed, they provide resource managers with a useful tool regarding land 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 . The purpose of this project was to produce a highly detailed and accurate first surface elevation map of the Pearl River Delta in Louisiana and Mississippi for natural resource managers and research scientists. Raw Lidar data are not in a format that is generally usable by 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 U.S. Geological Survey's Coastal and Marine Geology (CMG) Program has developed custom software to convert raw Lidar data into a GIS-compatible map product to be provided to GIS specialists, managers, and scientists. The primary tool used in the conversion process is Airborne Lidar Processing System (ALPS), a multi-tiered processing system developed by a USGS-NASA collaborative project. Specialized processing algorithms are used to convert raw waveform Lidar data acquired by the EAARL to georeferenced spot (x,y,z) returns for "first surface" and "bare earth" topography. These data are then converted to the North American Datum of 1983 and the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (using the GEOID03 model). Each file contains data located in a 2-km by 2-km tile, where the upper-left bound can be assessed quickly through the file name. The first 3 numbers in the file name represent the left-most UTM easting coordinate (e###000) in meters, the next 4 numbers represent the top-most UTM northing coordinate (n####000) in meters, and the last 2 numbers (##) represent the UTM zone in which the tile is located (for example, fs_e123_n4567_18).The development of custom software for creating these data products has been supported by the U.S. Geological Survey CMG Program's Decision Support for Coastal Parks, Sanctuaries, and Preserves Project. Processed data products are used by the U.S. Geological Survey CMG Program's National Assessments of Coastal Change Hazards Project to quantify the vulnerability of shorelines to coastal change hazards such as severe storms, sea-level rise, and shoreline erosion and retreat. 20080309 20080310 20080311 ground condition Complete None planned -89.85 -89.4 30.266667 30.03333 USGS Metadata Identifier USGS:2aae0038-d84b-485d-8509-aa6e2fbd45a8 ISO Topic Keywords 19115 elevation http://remotesensing.usgs.gov/ Airborne Lidar Processing System ALPS Digital Elevation Model DEM EAARL Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar laser altimetry Lidar remote sensing topography Data Categories for Marine Planning distributions bathymetry and elevation Marine Realms Information Bank (MRIB) Keywords altimetry topographic mapping USGS Thesaurus LIDAR topography digital elevation models http://nationalmap.gov/ Pearl River Delta Louisiana Mississippi Northern Gulf of Mexico http://lidar.cr.usgs.gov/ First Surface http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/1104/temporal.html 2008 None The U.S. Geological Survey, University of New Orleans, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration request to be acknowledged as originators of this dataset in future products or derivative research. Amar Nayegandhi Jacobs Technology, U.S. Geological Survey, FISC, St. Petersburg, FL Computer Scientist mailing and physical address

600 4th Street South

Saint Petersburg FL 33701 USA 727 803-8747 (x3026) 727-803-2031 anayegandhi@usgs.gov M-F, 8:00-5:00 EST http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/417/html/images/Pearl_River.jpg EAARL Coastal Topography–Pearl River Delta 2008: First Surface JPG Acknowledgment of the U.S. Geological Survey, Florida Integrated Science Center, as a data source would be appreciated in products developed from these data, and such acknowledgment as is standard for citation and legal practices for data source is expected. Sharing of new data layers developed directly from these data would also be appreciated by the U.S. Geological Survey staff. Users should be aware that comparisons with other datasets for the same area from other time periods may be inaccurate due to inconsistencies resulting from changes in photointerpretation, mapping conventions, and digital processes over time. These data are not legal documents and are not to be used as such. Unclassified Unclassified None Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 2; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.2.2.1350 The expected accuracy of the measured variables is as follows: attitude within 0.07 degree, 3-cm nominal ranging accuracy, and vertical elevation accuracy of +/-15 cm for the topographic surface. Quality checks are built into the data-processing software. Each file contains data located in a 2-km by 2-km tile, where the upper-left bound can be assessed quickly through the file name. The first 3 numbers in the file name represent the left-most UTM easting coordinate (e###000) in meters, the next 4 numbers represent the top-most UTM northing coordinate (n####000) in meters, and the last 2 numbers (##) represent the UTM zone in which the tile is located (for example, fs_e123_n4567_18). Several regions of the dataset are labeled as "No Data", which corresponds to a cell value of -32767 m in the GeoTIFF file. These "No Data" areas are a result of the survey not covering a particular region, optical water depth of greater than 1.5 Secchi disc depths, or the manual removal of Lidar processing artifacts. Raw elevation measurements have been determined to be within 1-meter horizontal accuracy. Elevations are vertically consistent with the point elevation data, +/-15 cm. U.S. Geological Survey 2009 first remote-sensing image U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 417 Saint Petersburg, FL U.S. Geological Survey Point elevation measurements collected by the EAARL sensor. 20080309 20080310 20080311 ground elevation none none The data are collected using a Cessna 310 aircraft. The NASA Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar (EAARL) laser scanner collects the data using a green (532-nm) raster scanning laser, while a digital camera acquires a visual record of the flight. The data are stored on hard drives and archived at the U.S. Geological Survey office in St. Petersburg, FL, and the NASA office at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The navigational data are processed at Wallops Flight Facility. The navigational and raw data are then downloaded into the Airborne Lidar Processing System (ALPS). Data are converted from units of time to x,y,z points for elevation. The derived surface data can then be converted into raster data (GeoTIFFs). 20080808 Amar Nayegandhi Jacobs Technology, U.S. Geological Survey, FISC, St. Petersburg, FL Computer Scientist mailing and physical address

600 4th Street South

Saint Petersburg FL 33701 USA 727-803-8747 (x3026) anayegandhi@usgs.gov M-F, 8:00-5:00 EST Metadata imported into ArcCatalog from XML file. 20080808 Xan Yates Jacobs Technology, U.S. Geological Survey, FISC, St. Petersburg, FL Metadata Specialist mailing and physical address

600 4th Street South

Saint Petersburg FL 33701 USA 727-803-8747 (x3086) M-F, 8:00-5:00 EST Keywords section of metadata optimized for discovery in USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Data Catalog. 20170124 U.S. Geological Survey Alan O. Allwardt Contractor -- Information Specialist mailing and physical address

2885 Mission Street

Santa Cruz CA 95060 831-460-7551 831-427-4748 aallwardt@usgs.gov Added keywords section with USGS persistent identifier as theme keyword. 20201013 U.S. Geological Survey VeeAnn A. Cross Marine Geologist Mailing and Physical

384 Woods Hole Road

Woods Hole MA 02543-1598 508-548-8700 x2251 508-457-2310 vatnipp@usgs.gov Tiling Index Raster Pixel 2001 2001 1 Universal Transverse Mercator 16 0.999600 -87.000000 0.000000 500000.000000 0.000000 row and column 1.000000 1.000000 meters North American Datum of 1983 Geodetic Reference System 80 6378137.000000 298.257222 North American Vertical Datum of 1988 0.15 m meters Explicit elevation coordinate included with horizontal coordinates Each pixel of the encoded GeoTIFF has an explicit elevation value associated with it. The GeoTIFF grid is encoded with a 1-meter resolution. The variables measured by EAARL are distance between aircraft and GPS satellites (m), attitude information (roll, pitch, heading in degrees), scan angle (degrees), second of the epoch (sec), and 1-ns time-resolved return intensity waveform (digital counts). Z value is referenced to orthometric elevations derived from National Geodetic Survey Geoid Model, GEOID03. U.S. Geological Survey Project Manager Project Manager mailing and physical address

600 4th Street South

Saint Petersburg FL 33701 USA 727-803-8747 (x3026) M-F, 8:00-5:00 EST DS 417 This DVD publication was prepared by an agency of the United States Government. Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the U.S. Geological Survey, no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the display or utility of the data on any other system, nor shall the act of distribution imply any such warranty. The U.S. Geological Survey shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and (or) contained herein. Reference herin to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. GeoTIFF 2008 GeoTIFF http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/417/data_files/fs/ Data can be downloaded via the World Wide Web (WWW) DVD DVD Vary Contact U.S. Geological Survey. Vary Contact U.S. Geological Survey for details. 20080309 20080310 20080311 20211109 United States Geological Survey, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center SPCMSC Data Management Group mailing and physical address

600 4th Street South

St. Petersburg Florida 33701 US 727-502-8000 gs-g-spcmsc_data_inquiries@usgs.gov Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata FGDC-STD-001-1998