Update on the OpenTopography Facility

Chris Crosby (SDSC @ UCSD) & Ramon Arrowsmith (ASU)

Lidar2 Workshop: New Tools in Process-Based Analysis of Lidar Topographic DataJune 2nd, 2010

The Challenge of Community LiDAR data

Northern California GeoEarthScope LiDAR

• LiDAR acquisition over 5600+ km2 = 50+ billion LiDAR returns!

• Thousands of DEMs as “standard” products

• Large user community with variable needs and levels of sophistication.

How do we deliver large community data sets

such as these?

What tools are necessary?

EarthScope LiDAR Project

Full Wavefo

rm?!

Tiered Data Access:

• Large and diverse user community requires range of data products.

• Pretty picture for synoptic data browsing and education.– Google Earth

• Vast majority of earth science users want a standard gridded product:– Optimized DEM

• Most computationally and resource intensive data (point cloud) are currently the least often accessed.– Access to “raw” data to optimize terrain

representation.

• NSF Facility: 3 year support (funding via EAR IF and OCI)

• Increase the amount of Earth science-oriented LiDAR available via OpenTopography (Discussion Point #1)

• Enhanced web-based processing capabilities, with a focus on computationally intensive tasks

• Community support: (Discussion Point #2)– Software – Tutorials and short courses– Education and outreach materials

OpenTopography as portal

CSDMS

Community SupportCloud, waveform

http://www.opentopography.org/kml

http://www.opentopography.org/dems

http://www.opentopography.org/pointcloud

Cyberinfrastructure in Action

Available Data:

• 60 billion LiDAR returns + thousands of 1 km2 DEM tiles available

• ~7500 sq km of data

• ~50 GB of hillshade imagery accessible in Google Earth.

http://opentopography.org/data

Logging Data Usage

Usage stats:- Help to optimize system

design- Are very compelling to

funding agencies and program managers

Building a community of users: social networking

Blog:

- News-

Announcements

- Processing and data analysis tips

- Data sources

Social Media:

Forums:

- Encourage discussion between users

- Share knowledge, tips, tricks

Discussion #1: Community (data analysis) tool repository

• Centralized and current access to community/PI developed software– Evolution of repository?

• html, wiki, cvs / svn / “OTforge”• Sub-community sandbox

• Community demand-driven deployment in OT production

Ex: Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS) Wiki (http://csdms.colorado.edu/wiki/Terrestrial_Mo)

Ex: Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS) Wiki (http://csdms.colorado.edu/wiki/Terrestrial_Mo)

Discussion #2: OpenTopography Data Priorities?• Type?

– Grids?– Points?– Other sources: TLS, total station, bathy, etc.

• Quality Threshold?– Research Grade

• Shots/m2

• Metadata / documentation?

• Domain-driven?– Data relevant to EAR research regardless of source

• Low-hanging fruit?

Questions & Comments:

ccrosby@sdsc.edu