LIDAR Point Cloud Sources

Best sources for free LIDAR point clouds (probably LAS or LAZ format):

US Interagency Elevation Inventory:   https://coast.noaa.gov/inventory/

For MICRODEM, the data must be in UTM or geographic coordinates.  There are options to reproject with MICRODEM, liblas, or LAStools.  LAS lidar

General caveats:

Source and directions Web site Notes
USGS TNM Download National Map directions https://viewer.nationalmap.gov/basic/ Probably the best starting location in the US
3DEP Lidar Explorer https://apps.nationalmap.gov/lidar-explorer/#/ Alternate USGS source I have not used much
OpenTopography directions https://opentopography.org/ Mostly US, but now a lot of data from New Zealand.  If you have an edu email, you can get USGS and NOAA lidar.
NOAA Coastal Lidar directions Graphical: http://coast.noaa.gov/dataviewer/?#
Projects list: http://coast.noaa.gov/dataviewer/?dataregistry/#/coastallidar
Getting lots of data
Some surveys may penetrate water; others only coastal strips of land.  For many areas multiple dates are available, showing temporal change.
Over 800 data sets now available at OpenTopography to academic users.
Status of state mapping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Lidar_Dataset_(United_States) My asessment 1/3/2023 is that this listing might not be very current.
My list and directions, not exhaustive or necessarily current
Countries with good national lidar: Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, UK, Wales    

Problems with ftp data download?  Your network might view these downloads as a security risk.

Other sites

LVIS: http://lvis.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.php

Commercial LIDAR clearing house:


Last revised 1/3/2023