USGS LiDAR progress in Montana 2026-04-21 - more LiDAR elevation source data
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Glenn Borkenhagen
Apr 23, 2026, 3:05:27 PMApr 23
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Greetings to MAGIP -
The USGS recently released some more aerial LiDAR point cloud (LPC) and original product resolution (OPR) bare-earth digital-elevation-model (DEM) tiles for Montana.
New coverage is of 2,460 square miles. The bulk of that area is the entirety of Dawson County (including the city of Glendive), along with about 12 square miles centered on the community of Neihart in the extreme southeast tip of Cascade County. Also covered are small areas of Prairie, Richland, and Wibaux counties.
A georeferenced PDF map showing the area of the latest releases is available here. The green area on that map was published on Tuesday 21 April 2026.
The data was collected from August 2024 to May 2025. These tiles are Quality Level 2 (QL2) data, the base-level quality typically provided by USGS.
Right now the lighter-green QL2 coverage area does not appear on the images currently provided at The National Map Download and USGS _ LidarExplorer when you click on "Show" but that should change in the next few days.
As of this writing (morning of Wednesday 22 April), both of the generally easy-to-use sources in the previous paragraph have this new data available. They usually have the data available for downloading soon after release, before it appears on their respective maps.
Also, the data is available from the USGS Rockyweb server (step-by-step instructions are here) and via Amazon Web Services (AWS - step-by-step instructions are here). On Wednesday 22 April 2026 both the LPC and OPR data was available via both of those methods.
To facilitate use of those sources -
The project is "MT_Statewide_Phase6_D24"
The work unit is "MT_StatewideP6_1_D24", both without the quotes.
Product-level raster (GeoTIFF) one-meter 10-km x 10-km digital elevation models (DEMs) are not yet available for this new data. Generally USGS delays issuing new product-level DEMs until after all LPCs and OPRs in a project are completed and released.
This project is called "2024 USGS Statewide Montana Phase 6 QL2 Lidar" on the US Interagency Elevation Inventory webpage. Upon completion, this project should fill in most of the areas within Montana for which USGS currently does not offer LiDAR coverage.
Finally, a reminder that if the USGS is not yet providing LiDAR point cloud (LPC) or LiDAR-derived DEM data for your area of interest, the Montana_Lidar_Inventory at the Montana State Library has and offers LiDAR coverage not available from USGS. The Montana Lidar Inventory also provides countywide mosaics as well as derived products such as digital surface models (DSMs - including trees, buildings, etc.), tree-canopy-height models, hillshades, contours, and building footprints depending on the area.
Regards,
Glenn Borkenhagen
Cody, Wyoming
307-272-5044
gl...@inlandgps.com
The USGS recently released some more aerial LiDAR point cloud (LPC) and original product resolution (OPR) bare-earth digital-elevation-model (DEM) tiles for Montana.
New coverage is of 2,460 square miles. The bulk of that area is the entirety of Dawson County (including the city of Glendive), along with about 12 square miles centered on the community of Neihart in the extreme southeast tip of Cascade County. Also covered are small areas of Prairie, Richland, and Wibaux counties.
A georeferenced PDF map showing the area of the latest releases is available here. The green area on that map was published on Tuesday 21 April 2026.
The data was collected from August 2024 to May 2025. These tiles are Quality Level 2 (QL2) data, the base-level quality typically provided by USGS.
Right now the lighter-green QL2 coverage area does not appear on the images currently provided at The National Map Download and USGS _ LidarExplorer when you click on "Show" but that should change in the next few days.
As of this writing (morning of Wednesday 22 April), both of the generally easy-to-use sources in the previous paragraph have this new data available. They usually have the data available for downloading soon after release, before it appears on their respective maps.
Also, the data is available from the USGS Rockyweb server (step-by-step instructions are here) and via Amazon Web Services (AWS - step-by-step instructions are here). On Wednesday 22 April 2026 both the LPC and OPR data was available via both of those methods.
To facilitate use of those sources -
The project is "MT_Statewide_Phase6_D24"
The work unit is "MT_StatewideP6_1_D24", both without the quotes.
Product-level raster (GeoTIFF) one-meter 10-km x 10-km digital elevation models (DEMs) are not yet available for this new data. Generally USGS delays issuing new product-level DEMs until after all LPCs and OPRs in a project are completed and released.
This project is called "2024 USGS Statewide Montana Phase 6 QL2 Lidar" on the US Interagency Elevation Inventory webpage. Upon completion, this project should fill in most of the areas within Montana for which USGS currently does not offer LiDAR coverage.
Finally, a reminder that if the USGS is not yet providing LiDAR point cloud (LPC) or LiDAR-derived DEM data for your area of interest, the Montana_Lidar_Inventory at the Montana State Library has and offers LiDAR coverage not available from USGS. The Montana Lidar Inventory also provides countywide mosaics as well as derived products such as digital surface models (DSMs - including trees, buildings, etc.), tree-canopy-height models, hillshades, contours, and building footprints depending on the area.
Regards,
Glenn Borkenhagen
Cody, Wyoming
307-272-5044
gl...@inlandgps.com
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