Topographic change with OpenTopography: Adventures in cloud computing, spatial uncertainty, and impactful applications

Remote event

WHPC@SDSC Professional Speaker Series with Chelsea Scott and Cassandra Brigham from Arizona State University

Topographic differencing measures landscape change at the Earth’s surface due to natural and anthropogenic processes. OpenTopography, an NSF-funded data facility, provides access to topographic data and processing tools. OpenTopography has recently developed on-demand topographic differencing and uncertainty calculation tools that can be applied to roughly 25% of the US mainland. Our uncertainty tool, available via a cloud-based app and Jupyter notebook, quantifies the magnitude of uncertainty at multiple spatial scales, mirroring the variable scales of common error types. We demonstrate these capabilities by calculating topographic change for the 2025 Eaton and Palisades Fires in Los Angeles.

Registration is FREE! 

Instructors

Chelsea Scott

Assistant Research Professor at Arizona State University

Chelsea Scott is an Assistant Research Professor at Arizona State University and a remote sensing specialist with OpenTopography. Her research focuses on topographic change analysis and seismic hazard to critical infrastructure.

Cassandra Brigham

Postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University

Cassandra Brigham is a postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University and a research scientist at OpenTopography. Her work brings together geomorphology, geospatial AI, and geostatistics to better understand how Earth’s surface evolves and how we measure it.