Starting in October of 2024, the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping will begin trials of a new program called NCALM NOW. With the accelerating effects of climate change, and the increase in natural hazards in the U.S., there is clearly a need to acquire rapid, high-resolution topography immediately after an extreme event occurs, and to follow up as needed (such as after a rainstorm event on a previously surveyed burned area). However, NSF Rapid funds are limited and are not sufficient to support the increasing volume of requests for rapid response lidar surveys – especially from the Earth science community. Therefore, NCALM has requested a limited amount of funding from NSF to support collection of perishable data immediately after a hazard event. Project decisions will be made by the NCALM Steering Committee, through submissions of brief proposals (online at the NCALM NOW Submission Site). Proposals will be accepted on a continual basis until annual funding has been fully obligated. Projects must be proposed by full-time faculty or research staff at U.S. institutions, centered around a basic research question in the geosciences (broadly defined). No financial support is provided to the investigator team, but it is hoped that the data from projects selected in this program will enable new research opportunities and lead to successful proposals for future research.
The NCALM website is the primary source of information for NCALM NOW projects.
Requirements
Due Date
Rolling Due Dates. Proposals accepted all year until NSF funding is fully obligated.
Contents
See the official NCALM NOW Submission Site.
Additional submission information:
- This is a single project/single year proposal. Repeat data collection proposals will be considered if they are supported clearly by the project's intellectual merit and broader impacts.
- NCALM NOW proposals are primarily for ALSM (airborne topographic lidar) data. We will consider, on a case-by-base basis, other types of data collection (e.g., bathymetry, aerial photography, terrestrial lidar, or hyperspectral imaging).
- Proposals that do not follow the format outlined in the NCALM Format Guidelines and Proposal Form will be returned without review.
Note: NCALM does not provide rankings or evaluations to proposing PIs.
Data Distribution Policy
NCALM NOW project data will be made public immediately. In special situations, this may be delayed for one year after the delivery of the data to the investigator team but will be evaluated by the steering committee on a case-by-case basis.
Report
Awardees are required to submit a report, not exceeding three pages including figures, one year after the delivery of the data. In addition to the report, awardees should submit one MS PowerPoint slide outlining the most important discovery from their ALSM data collection.
Budget
NCALM NOW projects do not provide any financial support to the proposal team. NCALM collects and provides lidar data only if the project is awarded.
Restrictions
Projects outside of the contiguous United States and/or in regions higher than 3,000 m elevation, or in areas of extremely rugged terrain cannot generally be funded under the NCALM NOW proposal program. The NCALM field crew will perform an initial check of project location before proposal submission – send email to ncalm [at] egr.uh.edu (ncalm[at]egr[dot]uh[dot]edu) for inquiries.
Additional Information
For information beyond this page, the Format Guidelines, the Selection Criteria, and the FAQ page, please contact the NCALM staff:
ncalm [at] egr.uh.edu (ncalm[at]egr[dot]uh[dot]edu)