Is there any free Lidar dataset available?

Question

I need a lidar-captured dataset to test my pointcloud model with that. Is there any free available lidar dataset?

Answer 1

Open Topography is a great resource for free aerial lidar and photogrammetric point clouds. At the time of writing, the USA and New Zealand seem to have the greatest coverage.

NOAA is probably the best source of freely available bathymetric lidar.

Most national & regional governments undertake periodic lidar surveys for applications such as flood modelling and forest mensuration. This data is often made available upon request. For example, the US National Lidar Dataset has data for each state/county. Other nations are also developing National Lidar Datasets.

To the best of my knowledge, there are currently two satellite lidar platforms providing free data:

1. NASA GEDI: a full-waveform lidar covering the tropics and mid-latitudes.
2. NASA IceSAT-2: a photon-counting lidar with global coverage.