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Aerial Imagery of the North Carolina Coast: 2021-09-20

Metadata Updated: February 22, 2025

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Remote Sensing Coastal Change (RSCC) project collects aerial imagery along coastal swaths with optimized endlap/sidelap and precise position information to create high-resolution orthomosaics, three-dimensional (3D) point clouds, and digital elevation/surface models (DEMs/DSMs) using Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry methods. These products are valuable for measuring topographic and landscape change, and for understanding coastal vulnerability and response to disturbance events. A nadir (vertical) aerial imagery survey was conducted from Cape Lookout to just north of Duck, North Carolina on September 20th, 2021, to document the state of the coast during the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season. The observations along the coastline cover an approximately 250-kilometer-long by 300 to 700-meter-wide swath of coastline and encompass both highly developed towns as well as natural undeveloped areas, including the federal lands of Cape Lookout National Seashore and Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Low altitude (300 meters above ground level) digital aerial imagery were acquired with a manned, fixed-wing aircraft using the "Precision Airborne Camera (PAC)" System (version 2). The PAC system is operated by C.W. Wright and consists of a mounted fixed-lens digital camera, along with a custom integrated survey-grade Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver. Data were collected in shore-parallel lines, flying at approximately 50 meters per second (m/s) and capturing true color imagery at 1 hertz (Hz), resulting in image footprints with approximately 75-80% endlap, 60-70% sidelap, and a 5.3-centimeter (cm) ground sample distance (GSD). The precise time of each image capture (flash event) was recorded, and the corresponding aircraft position was computed during post-processing of the GNSS data. Precise image positions can then be determined by accounting for the lever arm offsets between the aircraft GNSS antenna and the camera lens, which are provided in the PAC System metadata (Kranenburg and others, 2023, https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/data-services/rscc/PrecisionAirborneCameraSystem). Position data, provided as latitude/longitude/ellipsoid height, is referenced to the North American Datum of 1983 National Spatial Reference System 2011 (NAD83(2011)) coordinate system.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date February 22, 2025
Metadata Updated Date February 22, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date February 22, 2025
Metadata Updated Date February 22, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
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Identifier USGS:8a69fbb3-2974-453d-9b36-4fae83e50630
Data Last Modified 20231020
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
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Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -76.54019265,34.55609818,-75.46095611,36.27379006
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 1a62ff3fffa99f9cf45b8664e7253f4fa3ed20e66b20bff41c5d661325a1c63c
Source Schema Version 1.1
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