Adding terrain data

The high resolution terrain data in CloudRF is constantly being updated, driven by user demand and the abundance of available public LiDAR data.

Supported data

Terrain data can be from a wide variety of sources in a range of resolutions and projections. Data in the following raster / point cloud formats is supported:

  • LAS / LAZ
  • GeoTIFF (GTIFF)

Target format

All data will be converted to GeoTIFF in WGS84 projection. This process can be either quick or slow depending on how much downloading and processing is required. The minimum resolution supported presently is 1m.

Making your request

If you would like high resolution data for your area please help us help you by finding some data first. This is usually from a local geographic website, university or public institution. Using a search engine with ‘Estonia LIDAR’ for example is a quick way to find public data. Once you have found a link, email support@cloudrf.com with the details. Data should be licensed for commercial use.

Pricing

Given the range of data and processing required, each task is priced differently, and some are free of charge. The factors which influence cost are:

  • Required resolution – 1m requires more work than 10m
  • Area / data size – A city is less work than a country
  • Population density – An urban area will carry a discount since there is more likely to be people using it.

Priority will be given to users who save us time by fetching and preparing the data.

Example one – City LiDAR, Free of charge

A user shares a link to public LiDAR data for a major US city. The request is non-urgent and the data is uploaded free of charge 2 weeks later because it is for a major city and can be used by other users.

Example two – Private LiDAR scan, Minimum £300 plus hosting

A user shares a link to private LiDAR data for a Mine they have under license which must be kept private so only they can use it. The data is processed and uploaded within 7 days of payment or a PO.

Ensure your source data is good quality as we do not have a magic wand for bad LiDAR!  The best we can offer is a smoothing filter to fill voids which are a common defect in scans.

The private data hosting is billed at £1 per megabyte per year so a 200MB scan would be £200 for the year. The LZW compressed size is used for quoting.