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:
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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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 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, 
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