Projecting las files

[Ben Melosh]

Hi all,  

I have a bunch of las files with the projection "NAD83(2011) / Conus Albers + NAVD88 height - Geoid12B (Meters)". See lasinfo read out:

lasinfo (220801) report for 'USGS_LPC_CA_NoCAL_3DEP_Supp_Funding_2018_D18_w2227n2055.laz'
reporting all LAS header entries:
  file signature:             'LASF'
  file source ID:             0
  global_encoding:            17
  project ID GUID data 1-4:   00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
  version major.minor:        1.4
  system identifier:          'OTHER'
  generating software:        'LP360 from GeoCue Group Inc.   '
  file creation day/year:     308/2020
  header size:                375
  offset to point data:       1792
  number var. length records: 1
  point data format:          6
  point data record length:   30
  number of point records:    0
  number of points by return: 0 0 0 0 0
  scale factor x y z:         0.001 0.001 0.001
  offset x y z:               -2000000 0 0
  min x y z:                  -2226999.989 2055000.000 124.290
  max x y z:                  -2225999.999 2056000.000 402.670
  start of waveform data packet record: 0
  start of first extended variable length record: 0
  number of extended_variable length records: 0
  extended number of point records: 5955969
  extended number of points by return: 3840874 1442629 535178 120964 15153 1107 62 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
variable length header record 1 of 1:
  reserved             0
  user ID              'LASF_Projection'
  record ID            2112
  length after header  979
  description          'OGC Well Known Text'
    WKT OGC COORDINATE SYSTEM:
    COMPD_CS["NAD83(2011) / Conus Albers + NAVD88 height - Geoid12B (Meters)",PROJCS["NAD83(2011) / Conus Albers",GEOGCS["NAD83(2011)",DATUM["NAD83_National_Spatial_Reference_System_2011",SPHEROID["GRS 1980",6378137,298.257222101,AUTHORITY["EPSG","7019"]],AUTHORITY["EPSG","1116"]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0,AUTHORITY["EPSG","8901"]],UNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433,AUTHORITY["EPSG","9122"]],AUTHORITY["EPSG","6318"]],PROJECTION["Albers_Conic_Equal_Area"],PARAMETER["standard_parallel_1",29.5],PARAMETER["standard_parallel_2",45.5],PARAMETER["latitude_of_center",23],PARAMETER["longitude_of_center",-96],PARAMETER["false_easting",0],PARAMETER["false_northing",0],UNIT["metre",1,AUTHORITY["EPSG","9001"]],AXIS["X",EAST],AXIS["Y",NORTH],AUTHORITY["EPSG","6350"]],VERT_CS["NAVD88 height - Geoid12B (Meters)",VERT_DATUM["North American Vertical Datum 1988",2005,AUTHORITY["EPSG","5103"]],UNIT["metre",1.0,AUTHORITY["EPSG","9001"]],AXIS["Gravity-related height",UP],AUTHORITY["EPSG","5703"]]]
the header is followed by 384 user-defined bytes
LASzip compression (version 3.4r3 c3 50000): POINT14 3
reporting minimum and maximum for all LAS point record entries ...
  X          -226999989 -225999999
  Y          2055000000 2056000000
  Z              124290     402670
  intensity       15291      65535
  return_number       1          7
  number_of_returns   1          7
  edge_of_flight_line 0          1
  scan_direction_flag 0          0
  classification      1         18
  scan_angle_rank   -10         29
  user_data           1          2
  point_source_ID  3372       3373
  gps_time 230241989.997174 230243648.938430
  extended_return_number          1      8
  extended_number_of_returns      1      8
  extended_classification         1     18
  extended_scan_angle         -1667   4833
  extended_scanner_channel        1      2
WARNING: there is coordinate resolution fluff (x10) in XYZ
number of first returns:        3840874
number of intermediate returns: 673022
number of last returns:         3839600
number of single returns:       2397527
overview over extended number of returns of given pulse: 2397527 1814598 1243182 423541 70387 6298 420 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
histogram of classification of points:
         2561401  unclassified (1)
         3392770  ground (2)
            1553  noise (7)
             245  Reserved for ASPRS Definition (18)
 +-> flagged as extended overlap: 632554
  +--->          248268 of those are unclassified (1)
  +--->          384286 of those are ground (2)

However, the files do not appear in the correct position when viewed in ArcGIS after I have adjusted the projection of the base map accordingly. Interestingly, the files do display correctly position using QGIS (3.22) but the listed coordinates are unusual (e.g., "-2217183, 2074644"). 

I have tried projecting the las files using a command like:

las2las -i test.las -epsg 4326 -o testpro.las

However, nothing seems to be able to display the files correctly in ArcGIS. Any suggestions or help is welcome.  Thank you.

Ben