Stream or bulk-download raw 3DEP lidar point cloud tiles directly from AWS instead of the USGS download portal, for a large regional terrain model.

domain: registry.opendata.aws/usgs-lidar · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗

Steps

  1. Review the dataset listing at https://registry.opendata.aws/usgs-lidar/ and the GitHub index at github.com/hobuinc/usgs-lidar.
  2. For lossless full-density LAZ tiles, use the Requester Pays bucket s3://usgs-lidar (AWS charges apply for egress/requests).
  3. For a public, no-cost, streamable alternative, use the s3://usgs-lidar-public bucket, which mirrors most (not all) resources as Entwine Point Tiles (EPT) — note some sources with incomplete/missing CRS metadata are excluded from EPT generation.
  4. Browse and visually QA a resource before bulk pulling by using the Potree/Plasio.js viewer index at http://usgs.entwine.io.
  5. For programmatic clipping/streaming rather than whole-tile downloads, use a PDAL or Entwine pipeline pointed at the EPT resource's metadata JSON.

Known gotchas

Related routes

Download USGS 3DEP lidar point cloud data for a defined project area
usgs.gov · 5 steps · unrated
Programmatically search and download 3DEP elevation products (DEMs, contours, or lidar point cloud tiles) for a defined project boundary.
tnmaccess.nationalmap.gov · 5 steps · unrated
Apply current USGS 3DEP lidar specifications and point-cloud classification requirements
usgs.gov · 5 steps · unrated

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