Alameda County Highpoint Commentary
LIDAR data
Date: December 1, 2014
Author: Andrew Kirmse
Uncertainty continues about whether Discovery Peak or Challenger Peak is
the true CoHP of Alameda County, CA.
A co-worker of mine took a look at a
2006 USGS LIDAR survey which gives the following results.
Discovery Peak   1172.330 meters (3846.23 feet)        
Challenger Peak   1171.824 meters (3844.56 feet)
Metadata indicates that the vertical accuracy is 0.3 meter at the 95% confidence level.
These values are taken from the bare earth sample points. There is some
communication equipment at the top of Discovery Peak and some trees on
Challenger. If the raw values are considered, the max elevations are
significantly higher, which gives at least some confidence that points were
correctly classified as ground.