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.

The first generation of U.S. photo intelligence satellites collected more than 860,000 images of the Earth’s surface between 1960 and 1972. The classified military satellite systems code-named CORONA, ARGON, and LANYARD acquired photographic images from space and returned the film to Earth for processing and analysis.

The images were originally used for reconnaissance and to produce maps for U.S. intelligence agencies. In 1992, an Environmental Task Force evaluated the application of early satellite data for environmental studies. Since the CORONA, ARGON, and LANYARD data were no longer critical to national security and could be of historical value for global change research, the images were declassified by Executive Order 12951 in 1995.

The first successful CORONA mission was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1960. The satellite acquired photographs with a telescopic camera system and loaded the exposed film into recovery capsules. The capsules or buckets were de-orbited and retrieved by aircraft while the capsules parachuted to earth. The exposed film was developed and the images were analyzed for a range of military applications.

The intelligence community used Keyhole (KH) designators to describe system characteristics and accomplishments. The CORONA systems were designated KH-1, KH-2, KH-3, KH-4, KH-4A, and KH-4B. The ARGON systems used the designator KH-5 and the LANYARD systems used KH-6. Mission numbers were a means for indexing the imagery and associated collateral data.

A variety of camera systems were used with the satellites. Early systems (KH-1, KH-2, KH-3, and KH-6) carried a single panoramic camera or a single frame camera (KH-5). The later systems (KH-4, KH-4A, and KH-4B) carried two panoramic cameras with a separation angle of 30° with one camera looking forward and the other looking aft.

The original film and technical mission-related documents are maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Duplicate film sources held in the USGS EROS Center archive are used to produce digital copies of the imagery.

Mathematical calculations based on camera operation and satellite path were used to approximate image coordinates. Since the accuracy of the coordinates varies according to the precision of information used for the derivation, users should inspect the preview image to verify that the area of interest is contained in the selected frame. Users should also note that the images have not been georeferenced.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducts baseline and storm response photography missions to document and understand the changes in vulnerability of the Nation's coasts to extreme storms. On May 19-22, 2009, the USGS conducted an oblique aerial photographic survey from Owls Head, Maine, to the Virginia/North Carolina border, aboard a Cessna 207A aircraft at an altitude of 500 feet (ft) and approximately 1,200 ft offshore (Figure 2, http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0946/html/ds946_fig2.html). This mission was flown to collect data for assessing incremental changes since the last survey, flown October 2000, and can be used for assessing future coastal change. The photographs provided here are Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) images. The photograph locations are an estimate of the position of the aircraft and do not indicate the location of the feature in the images. (See the Navigation Data page in the corresponding report, for additional details, http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0946/html/ds946_nav.html). These photographs document the configuration of the barrier islands and other coastal features at the time of the survey. ExifTool (http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/) is a free software program for reading, writing, and manipulating image, audio, and video metadata. ExifTool was used to add the following to the header of each photo: time of collection, Global Positioning System (GPS) latitude, GPS longitude, keywords, credit, artist (photographer), caption, copyright, and contact information. Photographs can be opened directly with any JPEG-compatible image viewer by clicking on a thumbnail on the contact sheet. All image times are recorded in UTC. Table 1 (http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0946/html/ds946_table.html) provides detailed information about the assigned location, name, date, and time the photograph was taken along with links to the photograph. In addition to the photographs, a Google Earth Keyhole Markup Language (KML) file is provided and can be used to view the images by clicking on the marker and then clicking on either the thumbnail or the link above the thumbnail. The KML files were created using the photographic navigation files. Note: A KML number was assigned to each photograph to aid navigation of the Google Earth file. These numbers correspond to the site labels in Google Earth.

4 aerial photographs were taken along the Little Missouri River in 1982. All images were geo-referenced to the 1995 digital orthophoto quarter quadrangles as described by Miller and Friedman (2009). Both the flood plain and active channel of the river were delineated on the 1995 digital orthophoto quadrangles and overlaid on rectified photos. ArcGIS was used to draw the polygons that delineate the flood plain and active channel; the delineation was saved as a SHP file. The separate images (geoTIFFs) can be viewed as a composite along with that year's channel delineation (SHP file) using a geographic information system (GIS) application. Reference: Miller, J.R., and J.M. Friedman. 2009. Influence of flow variability on flood-plain formation and destruction, Little Missouri River, North Dakota. Geological Society of America Bulletin 121:752-759.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducts baseline and storm-response photography missions to document and understand the changes in the vulnerability of the Nation's coasts to extreme storms. On September 7, 2016, the USGS conducted an oblique aerial photographic survey from Navarre Beach, Florida, to Breton Island, Louisiana, aboard a Maule MT57 aircraft at an altitude of 500 feet (ft) and approximately 1,200 ft offshore. This mission was conducted to collect data for assessing incremental changes in the beach and nearshore area since the last survey, which was flown in September 2016 (https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2015-335-FA) (Morgan, 2016, [https://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ds1008]), and the data can be used as a baseline to assess future coastal change. The photographs provided are Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) images. The photograph locations are an estimate of the aircraft's position and do not indicate the location of the features in the images. These photographs document the configuration of the barrier islands and other coastal features at the time of the survey. ExifTool (version 4.0) was used to add the following to the header of each photograph: time of collection, GPS latitude, GPS longitude, keywords, credit, artist (photographer), caption, copyright, and contact information. Photographs can be opened with any JPEG-compatible image viewer by clicking on a thumbnail on the contact sheet. All image times are recorded in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

The National High Altitude Photography (NHAP) program, which was operated from 1980 - 1989, was coordinated by the U.S. Geological Survey as an interagency project to eliminate duplicate photography in various Government programs. The aim of the program was to cover the 48 conterminous states of the USA over a 5-year span. In the NHAP program, black-and-white and color-infrared aerial photographs were obtained on 9-inch film from an altitude of 40,000 feet above mean terrain elevation and are centered over USGS 7.5-minute quadrangles. The color-infrared photographs are at a scale of 1:58,000 (1 inch equals about .9 miles) and the black-and-white photographs are at a scale of 1:80,000 (1 inch equals about 1.26 miles).

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducts baseline and storm-response photography missions to document and understand the changes in vulnerability of the Nation's coasts to extreme storms. On September 9-10, 2008, the USGS conducted an oblique aerial photographic survey (during Field Activity Number [FAN] 08ACH05) from Calcasieu Lake, Louisiana, to Brownsville, Texas, aboard a Cessna C-210 aircraft at an altitude of 500 feet (ft) and approximately 1,000 ft offshore (Figure 2, http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0991/html/ds991_fig2.html). This mission was flown to collect data for assessing incremental changes in the beach and nearshore area and can be used for assessing future coastal change. The photographs provided here are Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) images. The photograph locations are an estimate of the position of the aircraft and do not indicate the location of the feature in the images (See the Navigation Data page, http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0991/html/ds991_nav.html). These photographs document the configuration of the barrier islands and other coastal features at the time of the survey. ExifTool was used to add the following to the header of each photo: time of collection, Global Positioning System (GPS) latitude, GPS longitude, keywords, credit, artist (photographer), caption, copyright, and contact information. Photographs can be opened directly with any JPEG-compatible image viewer by clicking on a thumbnail on the contact sheet. All image times are recorded in UTC. Table 1 (http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0991/html/ds991_table.html) provides detailed information about the assigned location, name, date, and time the photograph was taken along with links to the photograph. In addition to the photographs, a Google Earth Keyhole Markup Language (KML) file is provided and can be used to view the images by clicking on the marker and then clicking on either the thumbnail or the link above the thumbnail. The KML files were created using the photographic navigation files. Note: A KML number was assigned to each photograph to aid navigation of the Google Earth file. These numbers correspond to the site labels in Google Earth.

A dataset comprised of road centerlines in Wyoming, USA, digitized to 2015 aerial photography from the National Agriculture Imagery Program. This dataset is an update to a former U.S. Geological Survey Data Series (“Large scale Wyoming transportation data: a resource planning tool”: O'Donnell and others, 2014) digitized to 2009 aerial photography. The U.S. Geological Survey Fort Collins Science Center created statewide roads data for the Bureau of Land Management Wyoming State Office using 2015 aerial photography from the National Agriculture Imagery Program. To ensure a systematic and repeatable approach of capturing roads on the landscape using on-screen digitizing from true color National Agriculture Imagery Program imagery, we developed a photogrammetry key and quality assurance/quality control protocols (O'Donnell and others, 2014). The updated statewide roads data will support the Bureau of Land Management’s resource management requirements with a standardized map product r ...

Assessing the physical change to shorelines and wetlands is critical in determining the resiliency of wetland systems that protect adjacent habitat and communities. The wetland and back-barrier shorelines of New Jersey changed as a result of wave action and storm surge that occurred during Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall on October 29, 2012. The impact of Hurricane Sandy will be assessed and placed in its historical context to understand the future vulnerability of wetland systems. Making these assessments will rely on data extracted from current and historical resources such as maps, aerial photographs, satellite imagery, and lidar elevation data, which document physical changes over time. This USGS Data Series publication includes several open-ocean shorelines, back-island shorelines, back-island shoreline points, sand area polygons, and sand lines for the undeveloped areas of New Jersey's barrier islands that were extracted from orthoimagery (ortho aerial photography) dated from March 9, 1991 to July 30, 2013. This data-set consists of polygons that represent the sand areas found in orthoimagery taken on the date specified in the filename and in the "Date_" field in the feature attribute table. Orthoimagery of New Jersey were acquired in digital format from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and New Jersey Geographic Information Network (NJGIN). Prior to processing, the images were trimmed to remove the bulk of the areas that were not going to be analyzed. Using ERDAS Imagine 9.3, the images were classified into 40 classes that were coded as either sand or not sand. Due to varying conditions within the imagery, the coding occasionally varied from one area to another. Using ArcGIS 10.2, the resulting coded raster data-sets were converted to polygons and edited. The following list provides additional details about the orthoimagery used. The sand areas for each date and area is in a separate data-set (shapefile) named nj_sandpo_

The Coquille River system is an unregulated system that encompasses 2,745 square kilometers of southwestern Oregon and flows into the Pacific Ocean near the town of Bandon, Oregon. Beginning in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, the South Fork Coquille River gains the Middle Fork Coquille River (drainage area 798 square kilometers) and shortly thereafter the North Fork Coquille River (749 square kilometers). In cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Geological Survey completed a reconnaissance-level assessment of channel condition and bed-material transport relevant to the permitting of in-stream gravel extraction along the the South Fork Coquille River from river kilometer (RKM) 115.4 near its confluence with Upper Land Creek to RKM 58.5 at its confluence with the North Fork Coquille River, the mainstem Coquille River from RKM 58.5 at the confluence of the South and North Forks of the Coquille River to its mouth, the Middle Fork Coquille River from RKM 15.4 to its confluence with the South Fork Coquille River, and the North Fork Coquille River from RKM 14.6 to its confluence with the South Fork Coquille River. To support these analyses, digital channel maps were produced to depict channel and floodplain conditions in the Coquille River basin from different time periods. GIS layers defining the wetted channel and bar features and channel centerline of Hunter Creek were developed for four time periods: 1939, 1967, 2005, and 2009. For this project, the active channel was defined as area typically inundated during annual high flows, and includes the low-flow channel as well as side channels, islands, and channel-flanking gravel bars. The wetted channel and bar feature datasets were developed by digitizing from aerial photographs. Aerial photographs from 1939 and 1967 were scanned, rectified, and mosaicked for this project (See metadata for each photograph set for more information on the rectification process and resolution of each dataset). Digital orthophotographs from 2005 and 2009 are publicly available.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducts baseline and storm-response photography missions to document and understand the changes in the vulnerability of the Nation's coasts to extreme storms. On August 24, 2011, the USGS conducted an oblique aerial photographic survey from Ponte Vedra, Florida, to the South Carolina/North Carolina border, aboard a Piper Navajo Chieftain aircraft at an altitude of 500 feet (ft) and approximately 1,200 ft offshore. This mission was conducted to collect data for assessing incremental changes in the beach and nearshore area. since the last survey, which was flown in September 1996 (https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=96ACH05) (unpublished), and the data can be used to assess future coastal change. The photographs provided are Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) images. The photograph locations are an estimate of the aircraft's position and do not indicate the _location of the feature in the images. These photographs document the configuration of the barrier islands and other coastal features at the time of the survey. ExifTool (version 4.0) was used to add the following to the header of each photograph: time of collection, GPS latitude, GPS longitude, keywords, credit, artist (photographer), caption, copyright, and contact information. Photographs can be opened with any JPEG-compatible image viewer by clicking on a thumbnail on the contact sheet. All image times are recorded in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

The aerial photography inventoried by the Pilot Land Data System (PLDS) at NASA AMES Research Center has been transferred to the USGS EROS Data Center. The photos were obtained from cameras mounted on high and medium altitude aircraft based at the NASA Ames Research Center. Several cameras with varying focal lengths, lenses and film formats are used, but the Wild RC-10 camera with a focal length of 152 millimeters and a 9 by 9 inch film format is most common. The positive transparencies are typically used for ancillary ground checks in conjunctions with digital processing for the same sites. The aircraft flights, specifically requested by scientists performing approved research, often simultaneously collect data using other sensors on board (e.g. Thematic Mapper Simulators (TMS) and Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanners). High altitude color infrared photography is used regularly by government agencies for such applications as crop yield forecasting, timber inventory and defoliation assessment, water resource management, land use surveys, water pollution monitoring, and natural disaster assessment. To order, specify the latitude and longitude of interest. You will then be given a list of photos available for that location. In some cases, "flight books" are available at EDC that describe the nature of the mission during which the photos were taken and other attribute information. The customer service personnel have access to these books for those photo sets for which the books exist.

Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Service Protocol: Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Application Profile: Web Browser. Link Function: information

description: The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducts baseline and storm-response photography missions to document and understand the changes in the vulnerability of the Nation's coasts to extreme storms. On October 13 €“15, 2016, the USGS conducted an oblique aerial photographic survey from Port St. Lucie, Florida, to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, aboard a Cessna 182 aircraft at an altitude of 500 feet (ft) and approximately 1,200 ft offshore. This mission was conducted to collect data for assessing incremental changes in the beach and nearshore area. The photographs provided are Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) images. The photograph locations are an estimate of the aircraft's position and do not indicate the location of the features seen in the image. These photographs document the configuration of the barrier islands and other coastal features at the time of the survey. ExifTool (version 4.0) was used to add the following to the header of each photograph: time of collection, GPS latitude, GPS longitude, keywords, credit, artist (photographer), caption, copyright, and contact information. Photographs can be opened with any JPEG-compatible image viewer by clicking on a thumbnail on the contact sheet. All image times are recorded in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).; abstract: The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducts baseline and storm-response photography missions to document and understand the changes in the vulnerability of the Nation's coasts to extreme storms. On October 13 €“15, 2016, the USGS conducted an oblique aerial photographic survey from Port St. Lucie, Florida, to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, aboard a Cessna 182 aircraft at an altitude of 500 feet (ft) and approximately 1,200 ft offshore. This mission was conducted to collect data for assessing incremental changes in the beach and nearshore area. The photographs provided are Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) images. The photograph locations are an estimate of the aircraft's position and do not indicate the location of the features seen in the image. These photographs document the configuration of the barrier islands and other coastal features at the time of the survey. ExifTool (version 4.0) was used to add the following to the header of each photograph: time of collection, GPS latitude, GPS longitude, keywords, credit, artist (photographer), caption, copyright, and contact information. Photographs can be opened with any JPEG-compatible image viewer by clicking on a thumbnail on the contact sheet. All image times are recorded in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Service Protocol: Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Application Profile: Web Browser. Link Function: information

Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Service Protocol: Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Application Profile: Web Browser. Link Function: information

Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Service Protocol: Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Application Profile: Web Browser. Link Function: information

This portion of the data release contains a digital image mosaic with 1.0 foot-per-pixel resolution of the Kamalo area on the south coast of Moloka'i. This image mosaic was generated using digitized 1:10K natural color photographs collected in January 2000 by Air Survey Hawai'i, Inc. for the U.S. Geological Survey. Also available is a lower-resolution 'browse' graphic of the image mosaic area and associated metadata.

Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Service Protocol: Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Application Profile: Web Browser. Link Function: information

Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Service Protocol: Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Application Profile: Web Browser. Link Function: information