First challenge in the raster structure lesson is incorrect

[jsta]

We cannot tell the units of our elevation data from the crs. Rather, the crs tells us the x and y units but not the z (elevation) units.

[HeatherSavoy-USDA]

I noticed this issue too as a helper in a recent workshop.

The current text could be expanded to elaborate on units of the spatial grid vs the variable(s). In this case, I don't see the elevation units specified in the tutorial or the raster's metadata. It is sometimes the case that we can't use R to get the variable units, so that could be mentioned. A more satisfying answer would be to point to where you could find the answer for this example. The documentation for NEON LiDAR elevation doc available from here mentions elevation in meters, but the EML file would be more explicit. Unfortunately, I don't see the EML files from NEON in the data folders on figshare.

Or the current text can be simplified to not mention the units of elevation and only ask about CRS units to make the answer more appropriate.

I'd be happy to do the PR if I knew what direction is preferred.

[jsta]

A PR would be great @HeatherSavoy-USDA!

I like option no. 1 (mentioning that we often need to look at the data documentation to get the units, and linking to the NEON page). I see that they have a DOI for the data (https://doi.org/10.48443/ymmp-fr93). I think it would be a good idea to use that instead of a direct link in case NEON changes the location of the page.