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Home arrow Articles arrow Data arrow GISuser Guide to USGS Orthoimagery and DOQQs     




GISuser Guide to USGS Orthoimagery and DOQQs PDF Print E-mail
Written by USGS   
25 February 2005
The Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangle (DOQQ) is an established product with the USGS and is another orthoimagery layer of The National Map. They cover an area measuring 3.75-minutes longitude by 3.75-minutes latitude or 7.5-minutes longitude by 7.5-minutes latitude.

The purpose of the EROS Data Center Othoimagery website is to provide instant access to The National Map Orthoimagery. The Orthoimagery category is one of the framework layers for The National Map. Imagery can be used as a base layer for updating or deriving additional geographic information, such as transportation networks, hydrographic features, elevation, and land cover. The orthoimagery featured in the website includes High Resolution Orthoimagery, Landsat 7 Mosiacs, and seamless Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangles (DOQQ).

Orthoimagery and the National Map

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is acquiring high resolution orthoimagery for the most populated metropolitan areas of the United States. As an essential element of The National Map, the need for up-to-date imagery is critical for Homeland Security and Emergency Response. The resolutions for the high resolution orthoimagery will vary, but the majority are approximately 1/3 meter or about 1 foot. The website will continually be updated as more areas are acquired and processed. The list of High Resolution Orthoimagery can be found under DATASETS and then List of available Orthoimagery areas.

Characteristics of a USGS Digital Orthophoto Quadrangle

The Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangle (DOQQ) is an established product with the USGS and is another orthoimagery layer of The National Map. The DOQQ's are being incorporated as a seamless product using the most recent imagery. The resolution is 1 meter and is either black and white or color infrared. The goal is to have complete coverage of the United States as a seamless product. Data will be added on a continuing basis until complete.

DOQs produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are either gray-scale, natural color, or color-infrared (CIR) images with 1-meter ground resolution. They cover an area measuring 3.75-minutes longitude by 3.75-minutes latitude or 7.5-minutes longitude by 7.5-minutes latitude. Each DOQ has between 50 and 300 meters of overedge image beyond the latitude and longitude corner crosses embedded in the image. This overedge facilitates tonal matching and mosaicking adjacent images.

The standard DOQ is formatted with an ASCII keyword header followed by a series of 8-bit binary image lines. Color DOQs are 24-bit band-interleaved-by-pixel (BIP) images. The header contains a wide range of data for identifying, displaying, and georeferencing the image.

All DOQs are referenced to the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83) and cast on the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection. Primary (NAD 83) and secondary (NAD 27) datum coordinates for the upper left pixel are included in the header so that users can spatially reference other digital data to the DOQ.

The file size of a 3.75-minute gray-scale DOQ is 40-45 megabytes, and a 3.75-minute color or 7.5-minute gray-scale DOQ can be three times this size.

DOQ production begins with an aerial photograph and requires four elements: (1) at least three ground positions that can be identified within the photograph; (2) camera calibration specifications, such as focal length; (3) a digital elevation model (DEM) of the area covered by the photograph; (4) and a high-resolution digital image of the photograph, produced by scanning. The photograph is processed pixel by pixel to produce an image with features in true geographic positions.


High Resolution Orthoimagery Available for Direct Download or Purchase

Urban Area Acquisition Date on Imagery Resolution Band Type Date Available
Albuquerque, New Mexico March 2002 0.3 meters Color June 17, 2003
Amarillo, Texas April 2002 0.3 meters Color July 21, 2003
Anchorage, Alaska September 2002 0.3 meters Color September 4, 2003
Atlanta, Georgia April 2002 0.3 meters Color June 9, 2003
Austin, Texas April 2002 0.3 meters Color March 23, 2004
Baton Rouge, Louisiana March 2002 0.3 meters Color March 14, 2003
Birmingham, Alabama March 2002 0.3 meters Color October 22, 2003
Charlotte, North Carolina April 2002 0.3 meters Color August 22, 2003
Chicago, Illinois March 2002 0.3 meters Color June 9, 2003
Colorado Springs, Colorado 2002 0.3 meters Color November 6, 2003
Dallas - Fort Worth, Texas February 2001 0.3 meters Color September 30, 2003
Denver, Colorado Spring 2002 0.3 meters Color March 19, 2004
Detroit - Warren, Michigan April 2002 0.3 meters Color July 2, 2003
El Paso, Texas March 2002 0.3 meters Color April 11, 2003
Fort Wayne, Indiana April 2002 0.3 meters Color December 3, 2003
Fresno, California June 2002 0.3 meters Color May 19, 2003
Houston, Texas January 2002 0.3 meters Color December 23, 2003
Huntsville, Alabama March 2002 0.3 meters Color March 19, 2004
Jackson, Mississippi March 2002 0.3 meters Color June 17, 2003
Knoxville, Tennessee March 2002 0.3 meters Color June 23, 2003
Lexington, Kentucky April 2002 0.3 meters Color March 27, 2003
Lincoln, Nebraska April 2002 0.3 meters Color April 18, 2003
Louisville, Kentucky January 2002 0.3 meters Color December 23, 2003
Lubbock, Texas March 2002 0.3 meters Color July 21, 2003
Mobile, Alabama March 2002 0.3 meters Color April 4, 2003
Modesto, California March 2002 0.3 meters Color May 2, 2003
Montgomery, Alabama March 2002 0.3 meters Color December 3, 2003
New Orleans, Louisiana (NEW) December 2002 0.3 meters Black & White May 7, 2004
Orlando, Florida April 2002 0.3 meters Color June 17, 2003
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma April 2002 0.3 meters Color June 9, 2003
Portland, Oregon May 2002 0.3 meters Color May 19, 2003
Providence, Rhode Island April 2002 0.3 meters Color June 23, 2003
Raleigh - Durham, North Carolina March 2002 0.3 meters Color October 8, 2003
Sacramento, California May 2002 0.3 meters Color June 17, 2003
Seattle, Washington June 2002 0.3 meters Color May 2, 2003
Shreveport, Louisiana March 2002 0.3 meters Color April 18, 2003
Springfield, Massachusetts April 2001 0.3 meters Color October 29, 2003
St. Louis, Missouri-Illinois March 2002 0.3 meters Color April 11, 2003
Stockton, California May 2002 0.3 meters Color April 18, 2003
Tampa - St. Petersburg, Florida May, 2002 0.3 meters Color September 4, 2003
Topeka, Kansas (NEW) April, 2002 0.3 meters Black & White May 7, 2004
Tucson, Arizona August, 2002 0.3 meters Color November 6, 2003
Washington D.C. April 2002 0.3 meters Color March 2, 2003
Worcester, Massachusetts April 2001 0.3 meters Color February 17, 2004

 Source: USGS

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is acquiring high resolution orthoimagery for the most populated metropolitan areas of the United States (See table above). As an essential element of The National Map, http://nationalmap.usgs.gov, the need for up-to-date imagery is critical for Homeland Security, and Emergency Response. The Orthoimagery category is one of the framework layers for The National Map. The imagery can be used as a base layer for updating or deriving additional geographic information, such as transportation networks, hydrographic features, elevation, and land cover. Acquisition of Imagery: The goal is to collect imagery over the metropolitan areas with a resolution of approximately 1/3 meter or about 1 foot. The process of collecting imagery has been implemented.

Distribution of Imagery to the Public: The data is available as a seamless product on the Seamless Data Distribution System. (SDDS) http://seamless.usgs.gov The imagery is available for online download as small files or larger areas may be purchased on media (CD or DVD). Useful URL’s: http://seamless.usgs.gov. DOQQs are available as compressed JPEG files from Terraserver as well.

Looking for more free resources & FTP sites? Other Sources of Orthophotos & imagery:

Sources:

Ortho factsheet - http://erg.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/factsheets/fs05701.html

Ortho Metadata Data Source Index

Note: DOQQs are available from numerous data providers and agencies. Many local agencies typically swap/trade data in order to improve their data holdings. We suggest you also start your search for DOQQs at a State Clearinghouse node, County Government website, or other government agency (ie. BLM, DOT). We have hundreds of useful pointers to free data providers right here at GISuser. See also:

 

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