Author Douglas Preston and Photographer Dave Yoder have published an in depth article in National Geographic about the initial ground exploration of an area mapped by NCALM in the rain forests of Mosquitia. Late last winter, NCALM's Juan Carlos Fernandez Diaz traveled to Honduras with Chris Fisher, Steve Elkins, and others to investigate an area seen recently to archaeologists only from the air and in lidar data. The expedition received much publicity in the months after. Read the article and see the photographs, along with additional information, on National Geographic's website.

Request for NCALM Seed Proposals from Graduate Students

The National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping, funded by the National Science Foundation, invites proposals from graduate students seeking Airborne Laser Swath Mapping observations covering limited areas (no more than 40 km2) for use in research toward an M.S. or Ph.D. degree. Proposals must be submitted online. For background information and complete guidelines for submitting a proposal, please see the Seed Proposals and Format Guidelines pages. The deadline for proposal submission is November 6, 2015. For more information, contact ncalm [at] egr.uh.edu (subject: NCALM%20Seed%20Proposal%20Information) or call 832.842.8881.

The National Public Radio’s Houston Matters recently interviewed the University of Houston’s Dr. Ramesh Shrestha, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of civil and environmental engineering and the director of the National Center for Airborne Mapping (NCALM). Michael Hagerty, host of Houston Matters, spoke with Shrestha about his involvement in the use of lasers to discover an ancient Honduran civilization.

Tropical wetlands are one of the most important sources of methane and carbon emissions, which means these land areas play a key role in climate change. Hydrology and hydrodynamics in the tropical wetlands are controlling factors of plant and animal ecosystems, sediment delivery, nutrient exchange and global climate change.