Funds from this grant support the collaborative development of software tools, data management needs and community training support in an effort to establish the foundations of a national facility (INTERFACE) to help geoscientists in obtaining high resolution, high precision, 3-D surface data. The facility will provide a one-stop shop for users at any experience level to obtain instrumentation, software, and instruction in the collection of earth surface data by Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). Existing TLS instruments will be made available for community use through UNAVCO. Ancillary equipment and processing and visualization software would also be made available through the UNAVCO facility. Development of software tools to establish standard workflows for taking users through all steps of obtaining high-quality surface data and visualizing results will be initiated. Community education and outreach through the establishment of best practices for equipment and software use, the conduct of numerous classroom and field instructional sessions, and establishment of a data archive and retrieval portal will be supported.
Overview Earth science investigations increasingly require accurate representation of the Earth surface using three-dimensional data capture, display, and analysis at a centimeter scale to quantitatively characterize and model complex processes. Recognizing?this science community need, researchers at several universities and UNAVCO established the NSF-funded Interdisciplinary Alliance for Digital Field Data Acquisition and Exploration (INTERFACE) project to support a Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) instrument pool and data collection expertise now based at UNAVCO. At its official conclusion in 2012, the value of INTERFACE cannot be overstated as being one of the critical foundations for the development and implementation of TLS community support provided by UNAVCO to the Earth science community. TLS is based on Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology and is part of a suite of new geodetic and imaging tools that are becoming increasingly important to the Earth sciences community for use in myriad research applications. Also known as ground based LiDAR or tripod LiDAR, TLS offers an unprecedented capability to image at centimeter-level resolution 2.5-dimensional surfaces such as topography and fully 3-dimensional shapes such as cultural objects or rock or ice outcrops with overhanging features. TLS instruments are very precise, reasonably portable, relatively easy to operate, and have been used successfully to support a wide range of geoscience investigations including detailed mapping of fault scarps, geologic outcrops, fault-surface roughness, frost polygons, lava lakes, dikes, fissures, glaciers, columnar joints and hillside drainages. Moreover, repeat TLS surveys allow the imaging and measurement of surface changes through time, due, for example, to surface processes, volcanic deformation, ice flow, changing beach profiles, and post-seismic slip. TLS is applicable to studying areas with dimensions from tens of meters to kilometers where detailed analysis is needed. Concurrent GPS measurements can provide accurate global georeferencing of the TLS data and absolute 3D coordinates, particularly important in repeat studies where the stability of all surfaces is uncertain. Integration with high-resolution digital photography allows the generation of photorealistic 3D images that open the potential to analyze and extract geospatially-referenced observations in the laboratory. TLS measurements complement spaceborne and terrestrial radar, airborne LiDAR, and spaceborne LiDAR techniques in providing smaller-scale, higher-resolution plots of important areas and by filling in areas inaccessible by these other techniques. INTERFACE activities led to the TLS data acquisition workflows currently used by UNAVCO, accessibility to new data analysis hardware and software tools, engineering support for pioneering investigative research projects, and community educational efforts including short courses at venues such Geological Society of America (GSA) meetings for scientists wanting access to the new technology. College students learned to use TLS at their undergraduate geology field camps, including the Indiana University G429 geologic field program. Other public outreach efforts included demonstrations of TLS technology by UNAVCO during the 2010 Science-Engineering-Technology Congressional Visits Day (SET-CVD) on Capitol Hill as described by Chell, K. (2010), AGU Scientists "Rock" Capitol Hill for Congressional Visits Day, Eos Trans. AGU, 91(25), 224, doi:10.1029/2010EO250005. As requests for TLS support for NSF-sponsored research projects continues to grow rapidly, UNAVCO’s current ability to serve such science community needs is directly attributable to INTERFACE. Compared to just a few short years ago, it is now very straightforward for an investigator to acquire or otherwise access TLS data. Many of the barriers that held back access have been removed or mitigated. INTERFACE helped fuel a dramatic increase in the number of research and education projects benefitting from TLS technology. And this increase led to the rapid growth of a TLS user community, as illustrated by a well-attended INTERFACE workshop on terrestrial geodetic imaging held in October 2011. Workshop attendance was nearly double that anticipated, and a significant number of participants were graduate students currently using TLS as a research tool. This is an indication of scientists’ interest in TLS and its accessibility. A comprehensive workshop report is available at www.unavco.org. A workshop highlights summary was published in Phillips, D. A., J. S. Oldow, and J. D. Walker (2012), Outlining a strategic vision for terrestrial geodetic imaging, Eos Trans. AGU, 93(11), 121, doi:10.1029/2012EO110005. The overall success of UNAVCO attaining its current state of capabilities, the rapid growth of an Earth science research community embracing TLS, and the formulation of a roadmap to help ensure future successes is the INTERFACE legacy. Looking back, we see that INTERFACE helped remove barriers to data acquisition and helped grow a science community. Looking forward, we see exciting new science opportunities and a need for continued community support.
