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Access CMS LiDAR data

In this tutorial, we will use earthaccess Python module to search for CMS datasets.

LiDAR Surveys over Selected Forest Research Sites, Brazilian Amazon, 2008-2018

This dataset dosSanos2019 provides the complete catalog of point cloud data collected during LiDAR surveys over selected forest research sites across the Amazon rainforest in Brazil between 2008 and 2018 for the Sustainable Landscapes Brazil Project. Flight lines were selected to overfly key field research sites in the Brazilian states of Acre, Amazonas, Bahia, Goias, Mato Grosso, Para, Rondonia, Santa Catarina, and Sao Paulo. The point clouds have been georeferenced, noise-filtered, and corrected for misalignment of overlapping flight lines. They are provided in 1 km x 1 km tiles. There are a total of 3,152 tiles in compressed LAS (*.laz) file format.

We will use earthaccess module to search and download lidar data.

Authentication

We recommend authenticating your Earthdata Login (EDL) information using the earthaccess python library as follows:

Search data granules

We will use earthaccess’s search_data API to find the granules within the data collection.

Total granules found: 3152

Let’s print the details of the first of the files.

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As we see above, the file is hosted in the NASA Earthdata Cloud.

The granules object contains metadata about the granules, including the bounding boxes, publication dates, data providers, etc. Now, let’s convert the above granule metadata from json-formatted to geopandas dataframe. Converting to geopandas dataframe will let us easily generate various plots about the granules.

Plot granules bounding boxes

Let’s now plot the bounding boxes for each granules. Here we only limit three columns for display purpose: GranuleUR, size, geometry.

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Region of Interest (ROI)

We will use a boundary of the Reserva Florestal Adolpho Ducke as the region of interest. Reserva Adolpho Ducke is a 10,000-hectare (25,000-acre) protected area of the Amazon rainforest on the outskirts of the city of Manaus, Brazil. It is a part of long term ecological research network and is one of the most intensively studied rainforest in the world.

Let’s plot the study area over a base map.

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Search granules over ROI

We will use earthaccess python module to search for the granules overlapping the above ROI.

Total granules found: 34
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Download Datafiles

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['downloads/DUC_A01_2008_laz_13.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2008_laz_1.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2008_laz_6.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2008_laz_12.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2008_laz_8.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2008_laz_5.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2008_laz_2.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2008_laz_9.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2008_laz_7.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2008_laz_0.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2008_laz_4.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2008_laz_10.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2008_laz_11.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2008_laz_3.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_16.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_11.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_2.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_14.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_5.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_4.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_1.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_3.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_6.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_18.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_19.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_10.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_0.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_7.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_17.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_9.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_15.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_13.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_8.laz', 'downloads/DUC_A01_2017_LAS_12.laz']
<LasData(1.0, point fmt: <PointFormat(1, 0 bytes of extra dims)>, 71736108 points, 0 vlrs)>
['X', 'Y', 'Z', 'intensity', 'return_number', 'number_of_returns', 'scan_direction_flag', 'edge_of_flight_line', 'classification', 'synthetic', 'key_point', 'withheld', 'scan_angle_rank', 'user_data', 'point_source_id', 'gps_time']
References
  1. dos Santos, M. N., Keller, M. M., & Morton, D. C. (2019). LiDAR Surveys over Selected Forest Research Sites, Brazilian Amazon, 2008-2018. ORNL Distributed Active Archive Center. 10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1644