World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery for most of the world’s landmass and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. The map is currently comprised of the following sources:Worldwide 15-m resolution TerraColor imagery at small and medium map scales.Maxar imagery basemap products around the world: Vivid Premium at 15-cm HD resolution for select metropolitan areas, Vivid Advanced 30-cm HD for more than 1,000 metropolitan areas, and Vivid Standard from 1.2-m to 0.6-cm resolution for the most of the world, with 30-cm HD across the United States and parts of Western Europe. More information on the Maxar products is included below. High-resolution aerial photography contributed by the GIS User Community. This imagery ranges from 30-cm to 3-cm resolution. You can contribute your imagery to this map and have it served by Esri via the Community Maps Program.Maxar Basemap ProductsVivid PremiumProvides committed image currency in a high-resolution, high-quality image layer over defined metropolitan and high-interest areas across the globe. The product provides 15-cm HD resolution imagery.Vivid AdvancedProvides committed image currency in a high-resolution, high-quality image layer over defined metropolitan and high-interest areas across the globe. The product includes a mix of native 30-cm and 30-cm HD resolution imagery.Vivid StandardProvides a visually consistent and continuous image layer over large areas through advanced image mosaicking techniques, including tonal balancing and seamline blending across thousands of image strips. Available from 1.2-m down to 30-cm HD. More on Maxar HD.Updates and CoverageYou can use the World Imagery Updates app to learn more about recent updates and map coverage.CitationsThis layer includes imagery provider, collection date, resolution, accuracy, and source of the imagery. With the Identify tool in ArcGIS Desktop or the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer you can see imagery citations. Citations returned apply only to the available imagery at that location and scale. You may need to zoom in to view the best available imagery. Citations can also be accessed in the World Imagery with Metadata web map.UseYou can add this layer to the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer, ArcGIS Desktop, or ArcGIS Pro. To view this layer with a useful reference overlay, open the Imagery Hybrid web map.FeedbackHave you ever seen a problem in the Esri World Imagery Map that you wanted to report? You can use the Imagery Map Feedback web map to provide comments on issues. The feedback will be reviewed by the ArcGIS Online team and considered for one of our updates.

The Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, GIS Unit, has created a series of Map Tile Services for use in public web mapping & desktop applications. The link below describes the Basemap, Labels, & Aerial Photographic map services, as well as, how to utilize them in popular JavaScript web mapping libraries and desktop GIS applications. A showcase application, NYC Then&Now (https://maps.nyc.gov/then&now/) is also included on this page.

Suggested use: Use tiled Map Service for large scale mapping when high resolution color imagery is needed.A web app to view tile and block metadata such as year, sensor, and cloud cover can be found here. CoverageState of AlaskaProduct TypeTile CacheImage BandsRGBSpatial Resolution50cmAccuracy5m CE90 or betterCloud Cover<10% overallOff Nadir Angle<30 degreesSun Elevation>30 degreesWMS version of this data: https://geoportal.alaska.gov/arcgis/services/ahri_2020_rgb_cache/MapServer/WMSServer?request=GetCapabilities&service=WMSWMTS version of this data:https://geoportal.alaska.gov/arcgis/rest/services/ahri_2020_rgb_cache/MapServer/WMTS/1.0.0/WMTSCapabilities.xml

High resolution orthorectified images combine the image characteristics of an aerial photograph with the geometric qualities of a map. An orthoimage is a uniform-scale image where corrections have been made for feature displacement such as building tilt and for scale variations caused by terrain relief, sensor geometry, and camera tilt. A mathematical equation based on ground control points, sensor calibration information, and a digital elevation model is applied to each pixel to rectify the image to obtain the geometric qualities of a map.

A digital orthoimage may be created from several photographs mosaicked to form the final image. The source imagery may be black-and-white, natural color, or color infrared with a pixel resolution of 1-meter or finer. With orthoimagery, the resolution refers to the distance on the ground represented by each pixel.

This layer is a subset from the World Imagery to focus on the Pacific Region. You can access World Imagery from here. World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery in many parts of the world and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. The map includes 15-meter TerraColor imagery at small and mid-scales (~1:591M down to ~1:288k) for the world. The map features Maxar imagery at 0.3-meter resolution for select metropolitan areas around the world, 0.5-meter resolution across the United States and parts of Western Europe, and 0.6-1.2-meter resolution imagery across the rest of the world. In addition to commercial sources, the World Imagery map features high-resolution aerial photography contributed by the GIS User Community. This imagery ranges from 0.3-meter to 0.03-meter resolution, down to ~1:280 in select communities. You can contribute your imagery to this map and have it served by Esri via the Community Maps Program.Updates and CoverageYou can use the World Imagery Updates app to learn more about recent updates and map coverage.CitationsThis layer includes imagery provider, collection date, resolution, accuracy, and source of the imagery. With the Identify tool in ArcGIS Desktop or the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer you can see imagery citations. Citations returned apply only to the available imagery at that location and scale. You may need to zoom in to view the best available imagery. Citations can also be accessed in the World Imagery with Metadata web map.UseYou can add this layer to the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer, ArcGIS Desktop, or ArcGIS Pro. To view this layer with a useful reference overlay, open the Imagery Hybrid web map.FeedbackHave you ever seen a problem in the Esri World Imagery Map that you wanted to report? You can use the Imagery Map Feedback web map to provide comments on issues. The feedback will be reviewed by the ArcGIS Online team and considered for one of our updates.

Zoom to desired area, click in the map and click the link to download 2016 Aerial Imagery at 3" resolution of the selected Index Grid. Image downloads are a .zip MrSid file with the .sid and the .sdw. The .sdw contains the georeferencing information for the .sid image.

Download the entire imagery for Dunwoody here: https://dungis.dunwoodyga.gov/SIDZIP/

Download / Reference / get a spreadsheet of the Image Index Grid Polygon here: https://get-dunwoody.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/aerial-image-index-grid-layer

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Aerial Photography data set includes over 2.5 million film transparencies. Beginning in 1937, photographs were acquired for mapping purposes at different altitudes using various focal lengths and film types. The resultant black-and-white photographs contain less than 5 percent cloud cover and were acquired under rigid quality control and project specifications (e.g., stereo coverage, continuous area coverage of map or administrative units). Prior to the initiation of the National High Altitude Photography (NHAP) program in 1980, the USGS photography collection was one of the major sources of aerial photographs used for mapping the United States. Since 1980, the USGS has acquired photographs over project areas that require photographs at a larger scale than the photographs in the NHAP and National Aerial Photography Program collections.

This map features satellite imagery for the world and high-resolution aerial imagery for many areas. The map is intended to support the ArcGIS Online basemap gallery. For more details on the map, please visit the World Imagery map service description.

The NSW Imagery web service provides access to a repository of the Spatial Services (DCS) maintained standard imagery covering NSW, plus additional sourced imagery. It depicts an imagery map of NSW …Show full descriptionThe NSW Imagery web service provides access to a repository of the Spatial Services (DCS) maintained standard imagery covering NSW, plus additional sourced imagery. It depicts an imagery map of NSW showing a selection of LANDSAT® satellite imagery, standard 50cm orthorectified imageries, High resolution 10cm Town Imageries. It also contains high resolution imageries within multiple areas of NSW within DFSI, Spatial Services maintained projects and captured by AAM, VEKTA and Jacobs (previously SKM). The image web service is updated periodically when new imageries are available. The imageries are shown progressively from scales larger than 1:150,000 higher resolution imagery overlays lower resolution imagery and most recent imagery overlays older imagery within each resolution. The characteristics of each image such as accuracy, resolution, viewing scale, image format etc varies by sensor, location, capture methodology, source and processing. For specific information about the metadata for the imagery used, please refer to the individual data series within the NSW Data Catalogue. As a consequence of the variety of source data, each map displayed by the user within this map service may have a number of copyright permissions. It is emphasised that the user should check the use constraints for each image data series. NOTE: Please contact the Customer HUB https://customerhub.spatial.nsw.gov.au/ for advice on datasets access.

Wayback imagery is a digital archive of the World Imagery basemap, enabling users to access more than 100 different versions of World Imagery archived over the past 10 years. Each record in the archive represents a version of World Imagery as it existed on the date it was published.This app offers a dynamic Wayback browsing and discovery experience where previous versions of the World Imagery basemap are presented within the map, along a timeline, and as a list. Versions that resulted in local changes are dynamically presented to the user based on location and scale. Preview changes by hovering over and/or selecting individual layers. When ready, one or more Wayback layers can be added to an export queue and pushed to a new ArcGIS Online web map. Browse, preview, select, and create, it’s all there!For more information on Wayback check out these articles.You can also find every Wayback tile layer in the Wayback imagery group.

World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery in many parts of the world and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. The map includes 15m TerraColor imagery at small and mid-scales (~1:591M down to ~1:288k) for the world. The map features Maxar imagery at 0.3m resolution for select metropolitan areas around the world, 0.5m resolution across the United States and parts of Western Europe, and 1m resolution imagery across the rest of the world. In addition to commercial sources, the World Imagery map features high-resolution aerial photography contributed by the GIS User Community. This imagery ranges from 0.3m to 0.03m resolution (down to ~1:280 in select communities). For more information on this map, including the terms of use, visit us online at http://goto.arcgisonline.com/maps/World_Imagery

This map features the World Imagery map, focused on the Carribean region. World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery in many parts of the world and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. The map includes 15m TerraColor imagery at small and mid-scales (~1:591M down to ~1:72k) and 2.5m SPOT Imagery (~1:288k to ~1:72k) for the world. DigitalGlobe sub-meter imagery is featured in many parts of the world, including Africa. Sub-meter Pléiades imagery is available in select urban areas. Additionally, imagery at different resolutions has been contributed by the GIS User Community.

For more information on this map, view the World Imagery item description.

Metadata: This service is metadata-enabled. With the Identify tool in ArcMap or the World Imagery with Metadata web map, you can see the resolution, collection date, and source of the imagery at the location you click. Values of "99999" mean that metadata is not available for that field. The metadata applies only to the best available imagery at that location. You may need to zoom in to view the best available imagery.

Feedback: Have you ever seen a problem in the Esri World Imagery Map that you wanted to see fixed? You can use the Imagery Map Feedback web map to provide feedback on issues or errors that you see. The feedback will be reviewed by the ArcGIS Online team and considered for one of our updates.

This reference contains the imagery data used in the completion of the baseline vegetation inventory project for the NPS park unit. Orthophotos, raw imagery, and scanned aerial photos are common files held here. Remotely-sensed imagery provides the foundation for mapping vegetation types and other land cover classes. Imagery taken by the GeoEye-1 satellite/sensor was acquired from LandInfo Worldwide Mapping, LLC. The product was delivered as bundled 50 cm panchromatic and 2 meter 4-band multispectral (R, G, B, and NIR) images. The imagery has a positional accuracy of <3 m. Specifications for the GeoEye acquisition included the following: Total area for new collection of 372 square kilometers, 10% or less cloud cover , 0-20 off-nadir angle guarantee, Acquisition dates between late May and late June, 2011 Imagery satisfying the requirements was successfully acquired for the BICA project area on June 15, 2011 and delivered to CSU in July 2011. Each image was delivered as a geo-referenced product mosaicked as a single scene/image. We created a 50 cm resolution pan-sharpened set of multispectral bands to use for interpretation of vegetation. The acquisition provided 4-band imagery during the peak growing season. Additional imagery supplementing interpretation included 30 cm true-color Google Earth/Bing imagery imported to ArcGIS using Arc2Earth™ software and older true-color imagery viewed using the Google Earth online viewer.

World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery for most of the world’s landmass and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. The map is currently comprised of the following sources:Worldwide 15-m resolution TerraColor imagery at small and medium map scales.Maxar imagery basemap products around the world: Vivid Premium at 15-cm HD resolution for select metropolitan areas, Vivid Advanced 30-cm HD for more than 1,000 metropolitan areas, and Vivid Standard from 1.2-m to 0.6-cm resolution for the most of the world, with 30-cm HD across the United States and parts of Western Europe. More information on the Maxar products is included below. High-resolution aerial photography contributed by the GIS User Community. This imagery ranges from 30-cm to 3-cm resolution. You can contribute your imagery to this map and have it served by Esri via the Community Maps Program.Maxar Basemap ProductsVivid PremiumProvides committed image currency in a high-resolution, high-quality image layer over defined metropolitan and high-interest areas across the globe. The product provides 15-cm HD resolution imagery.Vivid AdvancedProvides committed image currency in a high-resolution, high-quality image layer over defined metropolitan and high-interest areas across the globe. The product includes a mix of native 30-cm and 30-cm HD resolution imagery.Vivid StandardProvides a visually consistent and continuous image layer over large areas through advanced image mosaicking techniques, including tonal balancing and seamline blending across thousands of image strips. Available from 1.2-m down to 30-cm HD. More on Maxar HD.Updates and CoverageYou can use the World Imagery Updates app to learn more about recent updates and map coverage.CitationsThis layer includes imagery provider, collection date, resolution, accuracy, and source of the imagery. With the Identify tool in ArcGIS Desktop or the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer you can see imagery citations. Citations returned apply only to the available imagery at that location and scale. You may need to zoom in to view the best available imagery. Citations can also be accessed in the World Imagery with Metadata web map.UseYou can add this layer to the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer, ArcGIS Desktop, or ArcGIS Pro. To view this layer with a useful reference overlay, open the Imagery Hybrid web map.FeedbackHave you ever seen a problem in the Esri World Imagery Map that you wanted to report? You can use the Imagery Map Feedback web map to provide comments on issues. The feedback will be reviewed by the ArcGIS Online team and considered for one of our updates.

Wayback is a digital archive, providing users with access to the different versions of World Imagery created over time. Each layer in the archive represents a snapshot of the entire World Imagery map, as it existed on the date it was published. This Wayback layer is the February 24, 2022 version of World Imagery. See World Imagery (Wayback 2022-02-24) Metadata for detailed information about each image source in this layer.World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery for much of the world, and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. As World Imagery is updated with more current imagery, new versions of the map are published. When and where updates occur, the previous imagery is replaced and is no longer visible. For many use cases, the new imagery is more desirable and typically preferred. Other times, however, the previous imagery may support use cases that the new imagery does not. In these cases, a user may need to access a previous version of World Imagery.Wayback currently provides access to all published versions of World Imagery, dating back to February 20, 2014. There is an ArcGIS Online item for every version which can be viewed in the Wayback Imagery group.

This layer of the map based index (GeoIndex) shows satellite data at different resolutions depending on the current map scale. At small scales, it is shown in generalised form with each pixel covering 300 metres, and at larger scales it is shown at its actual resolution of 30 metres. The satellite imagery in GeoIndex was acquired by the Landsat Thematic Mapper sensor between 1984 and 1990. The imagery has been processed by the BGS Remote Sensing Section to increase contrast and thus enhance natural boundaries. Winter imagery was chosen due to the low sun angle, which enables geomorphic features on the landscape to be distinguished and interpreted. The colours in the image are not what one would normally expect to see because we have used infrared wavelengths to help us extract more geological information than would be possible if we had used visible bands. To create a single image of the whole country, many smaller images covering different rectangular areas and taken at different dates have been patched together. This will in some cases produce marked changes where the smaller images meet and is due to the different conditions when the images were taken.

World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery for most of the world’s landmass and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. The map is currently comprised of the following sources: Worldwide 15-m resolution TerraColor imagery at small and medium map scales.Maxar imagery basemap products around the world: Vivid Premium at 15-cm HD resolution for select metropolitan areas, Vivid Advanced 30-cm HD for more than 1,000 metropolitan areas, and Vivid Standard from 1.2-m to 0.6-cm resolution for the most of the world, with 30-cm HD across the United States and parts of Western Europe. More information on the Maxar products is included below. High-resolution aerial photography contributed by the GIS User Community. This imagery ranges from 30-cm to 3-cm resolution. You can contribute your imagery to this map and have it served by Esri via the Community Maps Program. Maxar Basemap ProductsVivid PremiumProvides committed image currency in a high-resolution, high-quality image layer over defined metropolitan and high-interest areas across the globe. The product provides 15-cm HD resolution imagery.Vivid AdvancedProvides committed image currency in a high-resolution, high-quality image layer over defined metropolitan and high-interest areas across the globe. The product includes a mix of native 30-cm and 30-cm HD resolution imagery.Vivid StandardProvides a visually consistent and continuous image layer over large areas through advanced image mosaicking techniques, including tonal balancing and seamline blending across thousands of image strips. Available from 1.2-m down to 30-cm HD. More on Maxar HD. Imagery UpdatesYou can use the Updates Mode in the World Imagery Wayback app to learn more about recent and pending updates. Accessing this information requires a user login with an ArcGIS organizational account. CitationsThis layer includes imagery provider, collection date, resolution, accuracy, and source of the imagery. With the Identify tool in ArcGIS Desktop or the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer you can see imagery citations. Citations returned apply only to the available imagery at that location and scale. You may need to zoom in to view the best available imagery. Citations can also be accessed in the World Imagery with Metadata web map.UseYou can add this layer to the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer, ArcGIS Desktop, or ArcGIS Pro. To view this layer with a useful reference overlay, open the Imagery Hybrid web map.FeedbackHave you ever seen a problem in the Esri World Imagery Map that you wanted to report? You can use the Imagery Map Feedback web map to provide comments on issues. The feedback will be reviewed by the ArcGIS Online team and considered for one of our updates.

For the purposes of training AI-based models to identify (map) road features in rural/remote tropical regions on the basis of true-colour satellite imagery, and subsequently testing the accuracy of these AI-derived road maps, we produced a dataset of 8904 satellite image ‘tiles’ and their corresponding known road features across Equatorial Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea). Methods

1. INPUT 200 SATELLITE IMAGES

The main dataset shared here was derived from a set of 200 input satellite images, also provided here. These 200 images are effectively ‘screenshots’ (i.e., reduced-resolution copies) of high-resolution true-colour satellite imagery (~0.5-1m pixel resolution) observed using the Elvis Elevation and Depth spatial data portal (https://elevation.fsdf.org.au/), which here is functionally equivalent to the more familiar Google Earth. Each of these original images was initially acquired at a resolution of 1920x886 pixels. Actual image resolution was coarser than the native high-resolution imagery. Visual inspection of these 200 images suggests a pixel resolution of ~5 meters, given the number of pixels required to span features of familiar scale, such as roads and roofs, as well as the ready discrimination of specific land uses, vegetation types, etc. These 200 images generally spanned either forest-agricultural mosaics or intact forest landscapes with limited human intervention. Sloan et al. (2023) present a map indicating the various areas of Equatorial Asia from which these images were sourced.
IMAGE NAMING CONVENTION A common naming convention applies to satellite images’ file names: XX##.png where:

XX – denotes the geographical region / major island of Equatorial Asia of the image, as follows: ‘bo’ (Borneo), ‘su’ (Sumatra), ‘sl’ (Sulawesi), ‘pn’ (Papua New Guinea), ‘jv’ (java), ‘ng’ (New Guinea [i.e., Papua and West Papua provinces of Indonesia])

– denotes the ith image for a given geographical region / major island amongst the original 200 images, e.g., bo1, bo2, bo3…

1. INTERPRETING ROAD FEATURES IN THE IMAGES For each of the 200 input satellite images, its road was visually interpreted and manually digitized to create a reference image dataset by which to train, validate, and test AI road-mapping models, as detailed in Sloan et al. (2023). The reference dataset of road features was digitized using the ‘pen tool’ in Adobe Photoshop. The pen’s ‘width’ was held constant over varying scales of observation (i.e., image ‘zoom’) during digitization. Consequently, at relatively small scales at least, digitized road features likely incorporate vegetation immediately bordering roads. The resultant binary (Road / Not Road) reference images were saved as PNG images with the same image dimensions as the original 200 images.

2. IMAGE TILES AND REFERENCE DATA FOR MODEL DEVELOPMENT

The 200 satellite images and the corresponding 200 road-reference images were both subdivided (aka ‘sliced’) into thousands of smaller image ‘tiles’ of 256x256 pixels each. Subsequent to image subdivision, subdivided images were also rotated by 90, 180, or 270 degrees to create additional, complementary image tiles for model development. In total, 8904 image tiles resulted from image subdivision and rotation. These 8904 image tiles are the main data of interest disseminated here. Each image tile entails the true-colour satellite image (256x256 pixels) and a corresponding binary road reference image (Road / Not Road).
Of these 8904 image tiles, Sloan et al. (2023) randomly selected 80% for model training (during which a model ‘learns’ to recognize road features in the input imagery), 10% for model validation (during which model parameters are iteratively refined), and 10% for final model testing (during which the final accuracy of the output road map is assessed). Here we present these data in two folders accordingly:

'Training’ – contains 7124 image tiles used for model training in Sloan et al. (2023), i.e., 80% of the original pool of 8904 image tiles. ‘Testing’– contains 1780 image tiles used for model validation and model testing in Sloan et al. (2023), i.e., 20% of the original pool of 8904 image tiles, being the combined set of image tiles for model validation and testing in Sloan et al. (2023).

IMAGE TILE NAMING CONVENTION A common naming convention applies to image tiles’ directories and file names, in both the ‘training’ and ‘testing’ folders: XX##_A_B_C_DrotDDD where

XX – denotes the geographical region / major island of Equatorial Asia of the original input 1920x886 pixel image, as follows: ‘bo’ (Borneo), ‘su’ (Sumatra), ‘sl’ (Sulawesi), ‘pn’ (Papua New Guinea), ‘jv’ (java), ‘ng’ (New Guinea [i.e., Papua and West Papua provinces of Indonesia])

– denotes the ith image for a given geographical region / major island amongst the original 200 images, e.g., bo1, bo2, bo3…

A, B, C and D – can all be ignored. These values, which are one of 0, 256, 512, 768, 1024, 1280, 1536, and 1792, are effectively ‘pixel coordinates’ in the corresponding original 1920x886-pixel input image. They were recorded within the names of image tiles’ sub-directories and file names merely to ensure that names/directory were uniquely named)

rot – implies an image rotation. Not all image tiles are rotated, so ‘rot’ will appear only occasionally.

DDD – denotes the degree of image-tile rotation, e.g., 90, 180, 270. Not all image tiles are rotated, so ‘DD’ will appear only occasionally.

Note that the designator ‘XX##’ is directly equivalent to the filenames of the corresponding 1920x886-pixel input satellite images, detailed above. Therefore, each image tiles can be ‘matched’ with its parent full-scale satellite image. For example, in the ‘training’ folder, the subdirectory ‘Bo12_0_0_256_256’ indicates that its image tile therein (also named ‘Bo12_0_0_256_256’) would have been sourced from the full-scale image ‘Bo12.png’.

This dataset contains both large (A0) printable maps of the Torres Strait broken into six overlapping regions, based on a clear sky, clear water composite Sentinel 2 composite imagery and the imagery used to create these maps. These maps show satellite imagery of the region, overlaid with reef and island boundaries and names. Not all features are named, just the more prominent features. This also includes a vector map of Ashmore Reef and Boot Reef in Coral Sea as these were used in the same discussions that these maps were developed for. The map of Ashmore Reef includes the atoll platform, reef boundaries and depth polygons for 5 m and 10 m.

This dataset contains all working files used in the development of these maps. This includes all a copy of all the source datasets and all derived satellite image tiles and QGIS files used to create the maps. This includes cloud free Sentinel 2 composite imagery of the Torres Strait region with alpha blended edges to allow the creation of a smooth high resolution basemap of the region.

The base imagery is similar to the older base imagery dataset: Torres Strait clear sky, clear water Landsat 5 satellite composite (NERP TE 13.1 eAtlas, AIMS, source: NASA).

Most of the imagery in the composite imagery from 2017 - 2021.

Method: The Sentinel 2 basemap was produced by processing imagery from the World_AIMS_Marine-satellite-imagery dataset (not yet published) for the Torres Strait region. The TrueColour imagery for the scenes covering the mapped area were downloaded. Both the reference 1 imagery (R1) and reference 2 imagery (R2) was copied for processing. R1 imagery contains the lowest noise, most cloud free imagery, while R2 contains the next best set of imagery. Both R1 and R2 are typically composite images from multiple dates.

The R2 images were selectively blended using manually created masks with the R1 images. This was done to get the best combination of both images and typically resulted in a reduction in some of the cloud artefacts in the R1 images. The mask creation and previewing of the blending was performed in Photoshop. The created masks were saved in 01-data/R2-R1-masks. To help with the blending of neighbouring images a feathered alpha channel was added to the imagery. The processing of the merging (using the masks) and the creation of the feathered borders on the images was performed using a Python script (src/local/03-merge-R2-R1-images.py) using the Pillow library and GDAL. The neighbouring image blending mask was created by applying a blurring of the original hard image mask. This allowed neighbouring image tiles to merge together.

The imagery and reference datasets (reef boundaries, EEZ) were loaded into QGIS for the creation of the printable maps.

To optimise the matching of the resulting map slight brightness adjustments were applied to each scene tile to match its neighbours. This was done in the setup of each image in QGIS. This adjustment was imperfect as each tile was made from a different combinations of days (to remove clouds) resulting in each scene having a different tonal gradients across the scene then its neighbours. Additionally Sentinel 2 has slight stripes (at 13 degrees off the vertical) due to the swath of each sensor having a slight sensitivity difference. This effect was uncorrected in this imagery.

Single merged composite GeoTiff: The image tiles with alpha blended edges work well in QGIS, but not in ArcGIS Pro. To allow this imagery to be used across tools that don't support the alpha blending we merged and flattened the tiles into a single large GeoTiff with no alpha channel. This was done by rendering the map created in QGIS into a single large image. This was done in multiple steps to make the process manageable.

The rendered map was cut into twenty 1 x 1 degree georeferenced PNG images using the Atlas feature of QGIS. This process baked in the alpha blending across neighbouring Sentinel 2 scenes. The PNG images were then merged back into a large GeoTiff image using GDAL (via QGIS), removing the alpha channel. The brightness of the image was adjusted so that the darkest pixels in the image were 1, saving the value 0 for nodata masking and the boundary was clipped, using a polygon boundary, to trim off the outer feathering. The image was then optimised for performance by using internal tiling and adding overviews. A full breakdown of these steps is provided in the README.md in the 'Browse and download all data files' link.

The merged final image is available in export\TS_AIMS_Torres Strait-Sentinel-2_Composite.tif.

Change Log: 2023-03-02: Eric Lawrey Created a merged version of the satellite imagery, with no alpha blending so that it can be used in ArcGIS Pro. It is now a single large GeoTiff image. The Google Earth Engine source code for the World_AIMS_Marine-satellite-imagery was included to improve the reproducibility and provenance of the dataset, along with a calculation of the distribution of image dates that went into the final composite image. A WMS service for the imagery was also setup and linked to from the metadata. A cross reference to the older Torres Strait clear sky clear water Landsat composite imagery was also added to the record.

22 Nov 2023: Eric Lawrey Added the data and maps for close up of Mer. - 01-data/TS_DNRM_Mer-aerial-imagery/ - preview/Torres-Strait-Mer-Map-Landscape-A0.jpeg - exports/Torres-Strait-Mer-Map-Landscape-A0.pdf Updated 02-Torres-Strait-regional-maps.qgz to include the layout for the new map.

Source datasets: Complete Great Barrier Reef (GBR) Island and Reef Feature boundaries including Torres Strait Version 1b (NESP TWQ 3.13, AIMS, TSRA, GBRMPA), https://eatlas.org.au/data/uuid/d2396b2c-68d4-4f4b-aab0-52f7bc4a81f5

Geoscience Australia (2014b), Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973 - Australian Maritime Boundaries 2014a - Geodatabase [Dataset]. Canberra, Australia: Author. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ [license]. Sourced on 12 July 2017, https://dx.doi.org/10.4225/25/5539DFE87D895

Basemap/AU_GA_AMB_2014a/Exclusive_Economic_Zone_AMB2014a_Limit.shp The original data was obtained from GA (Geoscience Australia, 2014a). The Geodatabase was loaded in ArcMap. The Exclusive_Economic_Zone_AMB2014a_Limit layer was loaded and exported as a shapefile. Since this file was small no clipping was applied to the data.

Geoscience Australia (2014a), Treaties - Australian Maritime Boundaries (AMB) 2014a [Dataset]. Canberra, Australia: Author. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ [license]. Sourced on 12 July 2017, http://dx.doi.org/10.4225/25/5539E01878302 Basemap/AU_GA_Treaties-AMB_2014a/Papua_New_Guinea_TSPZ_AMB2014a_Limit.shp The original data was obtained from GA (Geoscience Australia, 2014b). The Geodatabase was loaded in ArcMap. The Papua_New_Guinea_TSPZ_AMB2014a_Limit layer was loaded and exported as a shapefile. Since this file was small no clipping was applied to the data.

AIMS Coral Sea Features (2022) - DRAFT This is a draft version of this dataset. The region for Ashmore and Boot reef was checked. The attributes in these datasets haven't been cleaned up. Note these files should not be considered finalised and are only suitable for maps around Ashmore Reef. Please source an updated version of this dataset for any other purpose. CS_AIMS_Coral-Sea-Features/CS_Names/Names.shp CS_AIMS_Coral-Sea-Features/CS_Platform_adj/CS_Platform.shp CS_AIMS_Coral-Sea-Features/CS_Reef_Boundaries_adj/CS_Reef_Boundaries.shp CS_AIMS_Coral-Sea-Features/CS_Depth/CS_AIMS_Coral-Sea-Features_Img_S2_R1_Depth5m_Coral-Sea.shp CS_AIMS_Coral-Sea-Features/CS_Depth/CS_AIMS_Coral-Sea-Features_Img_S2_R1_Depth10m_Coral-Sea.shp

Murray Island 20 Sept 2011 15cm SISP aerial imagery, Queensland Spatial Imagery Services Program, Department of Resources, Queensland This is the high resolution imagery used to create the map of Mer.

Marine satellite imagery (Sentinel 2 and Landsat 8) (AIMS), https://eatlas.org.au/data/uuid/5d67aa4d-a983-45d0-8cc1-187596fa9c0c - World_AIMS_Marine-satellite-imagery

Data Location: This dataset is filed in the eAtlas enduring data repository at: data\custodian\2020-2029-AIMS\TS_AIMS_Torres-Strait-Sentinel-2-regional-maps. On the eAtlas server it is stored at eAtlas GeoServer\data\2020-2029-AIMS.

The USGS NAIP Imagery service from The National Map consists of 4-band high resolution images that combine the visual attributes of an aerial photograph with the spatial accuracy and reliability of a map. Resolution of National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) data is most commonly 1 meter, which means that every pixel in the digital orthoimage covers a one meter square of the earth’s surface. Some states to include Wyoming and New York began collection of 0.5 meter pixel resolution NAIP in 2015. Many states contribute orthoimagery to The National Map, and USGS relies on a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency for NAIP data. The USGS NAIP Imagery service is a mosaic of natural color and color infrared (4-band) aerial imagery, containing NAIP and other imagery sources to complete the mosaic. The National Map download client allows free downloads of public domain compressed orthoimagery in JPEG 2000 (.jp2) format for the conterminous United States, with many urban areas and other locations at 1-foot (or better) resolution, also in JPEG 2000 (.jp2) format. For additional information on orthoimagery, go to https://nationalmap.gov/ortho.html. This imagery service is for viewing only, no downloading of the raster images available. NAIP/Statewide_NAIP_2017_3ft_4band_wsps_83h_img