Collaborative Research: Facility Support to Renew Operation of the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM)

0518962

Shrestha

Also known as airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), ALSM allows for the measurement of surface topographic features with decimeter-level accuracies and 1 meter spatial resolution. High resolution, georeferenced, digital elevation models (DEMs) processed from raw ALSM data are critical for observing a multitude of geomorphic features at scales appropriate to the fundamental processes that govern their topographic expression. Examples include, fault structures, hill slopes, riverine features, coastal features, glaciers, volcanic edifices and vegetative canopy structure. DEMs developed from ALSM can be used to model and therefore better understand the dynamics of these landforms and the underlying processes that form them. The technique also has obvious applications in civil engineering.

This grant provides three years of continued support for the management and operation of the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM). A collaborative effort between the University of Florida (UF; EAR-0518962) and the University of California - Berkeley (UC-B; EAR-0518615), NCALM provides project planning services, ALSM flight and ground crew operations, technical support for data analysis, and access to computational resources and software to make available to the broader geosciences community, high quality, research-grade, digital topographic data. NCALM makes available to the science community, an Optech 33 kHz ALSM system jointly owned by UF and Florida International University (FIU), that can be flown on a UF twin engine Cessna 337 aircraft equipped with GPS equipment and an inertial measurement system. NCALM staff are also involved in: 1) development of new laser ranging technologies including Mhz photon counting ALSM operating at wavelengths that allow water penetration for neritic coastal mapping; 2) developing methods and software for multi-sensor data collection and fusion; 3) developing software for automated classification of ALSM data sets (through a subaward to FIU); 4) training students in ALSM techniques and applications through a newly developed UF graduate program in Geosensing Engineering; 5) administering a seed grant program for student investigators; and 6) community outreach through ALSM workshops and organization of ALSM science sessions at national meetings. NCALM is managed by the PIs and overseen by a steering committee (SC). The SC provides guidance and review on the following: 1) scheduling and prioritizing projects; 2) cost effective management of the Center; 3) information dissemination; 4) opportunities and necessities for technological upgrades; and 5) contact and coordination with major programs (PBO, CUASHI, Margins, etc.) and agencies (NASA, FEMA, USGS).

In the first two years of NCALMs existence, over 17 projects have been supported for wide arrange of research that has or will include NCALM ALSM data collects. Projects that have been flown or are scheduled for missions include but are not limited to: studies of wetland ecosystem dynamics on a New England coastal island; neotectonic investigations of fine scale fault structures along the San Andreas fault system; studies of the interaction of climate, orogenic processes and erosion in SE Alaska; investigations of paleolandslide deposits and frequency in coastal California; and studies of the seasonality of barrier beach dynamics in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

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