Airborne LiDAR Digital Surface Models for North American Forests

G-LiHT's portable airborne system simultaneously maps forest composition, structure, and function across North America. Data products include LiDAR-derived visualizations of elevation above bare earth, such as Digital Surface Model, Mean, Aspect, Rugosity, and Slope layers. These raster products are provided at a nominal 1-meter spatial resolution over targeted areas in the Conterminous United States, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.

Use Cases

• Estimate forest canopy height by analyzing the Digital Surface Model layer against a bare-earth DEM.
• Model terrain characteristics for ecological studies using the Slope and Aspect raster products.
• Assess landscape structural complexity and habitat heterogeneity through the Rugosity metric.
• Generate high-resolution (1m) elevation visualizations for specific forest communities and ecoregions.

Strengths

• Nominal 1-meter spatial resolution provides fine-grained topographic detail.
• Multifaceted data product includes five derived raster layers (DSM, Mean, Aspect, Rugosity, Slope).
• Coverage spans a broad diversity of forest communities across multiple countries and regions.

Limitations

• Specific row/column counts, file sizes, and total spatial extent are not provided.
• Data availability is limited to locally defined airborne swath areas, not continuous continental coverage.
• Temporal coverage and specific acquisition dates for flights are unknown.

Provenance

Source

Goddard's LiDAR, Hyperspectral, and Thermal Imagery (G-LiHT) airborne mission, processed by LPCLOUD.

Collection Method

Airborne imaging system collecting simultaneous LiDAR, hyperspectral, and thermal data, processed into multiple raster data products.

Geography

Conterminous United States, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.