Terrestrial Laser Scanning Activities at UNAVCO: New Support Resources and Project Highlights

UNAVCO is significantly increasing Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS), a.k.a. ground based LiDAR, resources available to support Earth science investigators. This increased support includes an expanded pool of available instruments, data processing facilities, and training opportunities. The planned procurement of five new TLS instruments through NSF funding, in addition to the one instrument currently owned by UNAVCO acquired through NSF Polar MRI funding, will allow investigators to study a wide range of interdisciplinary Earth science research. These instruments, including engineering support, will be available to researchers as part of the UNAVCO Facility pool along with ancillary equipment such as GPS systems. The UNAVCO Facility currently conducts and coordinates TLS activities through Polar Services support and as part of INTERFACE (INTERdisciplinary alliance for digital Field data ACquisition and Exploration), a collaborative project funded by NSF that includes specialized TLS data processing and visualization software tools developed specifically for geoscience applications, as well as community outreach and training. In addition to this overview of TLS resources, we also highlight several TLS projects that UNAVCO has supported. Highlighted projects include 1) monitoring gully-head propagation at West Bijou Creek, Colorado, 2 ) describing the Echo Cliffs precariously balanced rock in the western Santa Monica Mountains, California, and 3) introducing and integrating TLS into undergraduate and graduate level field geology courses in the Rocky Mountains as part of the Indiana University geologic field programs. See abstracts by Tucker et al. and Hudnut et al. for details and results regarding the West Bijou Creek and Echo Cliffs investigations, respectively.