NOAA Great Bay UAS Lidar DEM: Bare Earth Elevation Model for 2019

A bare earth digital elevation model (DEM) derived from high-resolution LiDAR data collected for four 'Sentinel Sites' within the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in New Hampshire. The data was collected by Air Shark for NOAA's Office for Coastal Management between May 1 and May 9, 2019, with Quantum Spatial as the contractor. The DEM represents the earth's surface with vegetation and human-made features removed, with some areas of interpolated elevation data.

Use Cases

• Modeling coastal erosion and inundation based on high-resolution bare earth elevation.
• Monitoring changes in estuarine vegetation and topography at long-term research sites.
• Calibrating or validating traditional ground survey methods with remote sensing data.
• Analyzing land surface processes in a protected estuarine reserve.

Strengths

• Data was collected for four previously monitored 'Sentinel Sites' where baseline parameters exist.
• Collection occurred over a defined period from 05/01/2019 to 05/09/2019.
• The underlying LiDAR point cloud data is also available for download.

Limitations

• Some elevation values are interpolated in areas with no data, such as over water or dense vegetation.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and spatial resolution are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) LiDAR by Air Shark, processed by Quantum Spatial.

Time Range

2019-05-01 to 2019-05 09

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:18:35.461933; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (GBNERR), New Hampshire, USA