I am having difficulty properly visualizing aerial LIDAR data from the csc.noaa.gov source.
Taking any of the .laz
files, the point cloud displays as an extremely long thin line of points. Zoomed in, there are cyclic perturbations in the points along that line, which leads me to believe that some sort of transform is necessary to properly visualize the data. For comparison sake, the aerial LIDAR data set found in opentopo.sdsc.edu visualizes as one would expect.
Both claim to use NAD83 as the horizontal coordinate system. From what I can tell, the only major difference is one is las 1.0
and one is las 1.2
. That being said, I don't really know what I'm doing.
A little bit of background to help guide an answer. I do not come from a GIS background, but rather am interested in comparing my LIDAR point clouds against a geographically accurate model, say a quality aerial LIDAR collect. For now, while learning, I have been using the free applications LAStools and CloudCompare.
Best Answer
This is because csc.noaa.gov lidar files are stored with the
.laz
file format extension. It is a compressed version for.las
extension.Read this* article to know more about compressed las files (.laz).
In order to correctly visualize these types of files, you need to retransform them from
.laz
to.las
. Use the open-source LiDAR compressor LASzip to accomplish this task.Here is one example:
Suppose that LASZip is installed under the drive
C:
, and the.laz
file is stored under a fold namedproject
(C:\project
). Do the following:aaa
is just a name for the file which I have made up. Here is more some tips from Bruce Simonson about potentializing the use of LasZip .*Reference
ISENBURG, M. LASzip: lossless compression of LiDAR data, 2012.
Examples
See below some examples about how
.laz
files become disfigured in comparison with its uncompressed version.las.
:This is the Fugro Viewer. While the dots in the
.las
file are concentrated in the upper and lower layers in the z direction (left panel), the dots in the.laz
version are more homogeneously spread (right panel).This is the Quick Terrain Reader. The dots in the
.laz
file are flattened in the z direction (right panel).