High-resolution Lidar survey covers the area of 722 km² which includes the Valles Caldera (upper part of the Jemez River basin) and Frijoles Canyon, New Mexico. The data collection was jointly funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP), Bandelier National Monument/National Park Service (BNM/NPS) and United States Geological Survey (USGS) and performed by the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) during a snow-off season (June and July 2010). The dataset contains point cloud tiles in LAS format, 1 m Digital Surface Model (DSM) derived using first-stop points, 1 m Digital Elevation Model (DEM) derived using ground-class points and 1 m hill shade dataset derived from DEM. This dataset, together with the snow-on Lidar survey performed in March and April 2010, are being used to estimate snowpack, vegetation biomass and distribution, and bare earth elevations to help better understand and quantify ecosystem structure, geomorphology, and landscape processes within the Critical Zone Observatory.

Publications associated with this dataset can be found at NCALM's Data Tracking Center