Post provided By Jason Stoker of the USGS

I wanted to let everyone in this group know that lidar point cloud data from USGS and our partners are now available for download via The National Map: http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/

We also have a few Beta services we would like people to try out: our Bulk Download Client and Manager, and the Bulk Point Query service: http://tnmbeta.cr.usgs.gov/beta/

Please send any comments on these new capabilities in The National Map viewer or Beta site to tnm_help@usgs.gov. We are always looking at how we can improve getting you all the data and information you need. Currently we are only delivering standard LAS files through the viewers though.

However; last but not least, for those of you that love LAZ files (I think there are a few here), point cloud data are also now available in LAZ format via FTP by project here: FTP

There’s almost 11 TB of LAZ data freely available to you all. Each project directory contains a laz directory, with corresponding data in LAZ format. You can find project names and extents for your areas of interest by searching in The National Map viewer.

I would love to see any examples of using data straight off this ftp page via “curl”. Actually, any examples of using any of these data are always welcome!

And in order for us to keep providing you all these types of data and services, we strongly encourage you to credit USGS and our partners when using these data.