Determining topographic shielding from digital elevation models for cosmogenic nuclide analysis: a GIS model for discrete sample sites.

Topographic shielding (TS) is an important factor in cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dating. The development of geographic information systems (GIS) and the availability of digital elevation models (DEMs) make it possible to derive this factor directly from a DEM. Most available GIS models derive the TS factors for an area (all cells in a DEM) without the consideration of surface conditions of individual sites, such as the strike, dip, and height above ground, into the calculation. This paper presents a new GIS model to derive the TS factors for discrete sample sites. This model uses the Skyline and Skyline Graph functions in ArcGIS to extract the set of azimuth and elevation angles of topographic obstructions around each site from a DEM (considering the sample height above ground) and then incorporates the strike and dip information of the sample surface to derive the TS factor. All processing tools and steps are streamlined in ArcGIS modelbuilder and this model can be run like a standard ArcGIS geoprocessing tool. It provides an easy and user-friendly means to derive the TS factors for discrete samples based on a DEM and the measured strike, dip and sample height for each site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]