Elwha PlaneCam – Aerial imagery and derivatives from periodic and event-response surveys of the Elwha River, Olympic Mountains, and Washington Coast

This is a collection of aerial oblique and near-nadir images, ancillary data, and derivatives, from aerial surveys of coastal and near-coastal environments with a crewed light aircraft using the "Elwha PlaneCam" system which consists of one or two cameras mounted in the wing inspection plate(s) of a Cessna 172 flown by Rite Bros. Aviation on flights coordinated through the Department of the Interior's (DOI) Office of Aviation Services (OAS), Olympic National Park, and/or USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center. Cameras were programmed to take pictures at a set interval. Camera hardware has no GPS capability, and cameras changed through time due to equipment failures and technological progress. Data are collected and produced primarily for monitoring the Elwha River and shoreline response to dam removal using structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry, although a few collections were performed in other areas as opportunities/needs arose. The purpose of this system is to capture ephemeral responses to environmental perturbation at a frequency that improves our understanding of the processes driving both short- and long-term changes in response to one of the largest dam removals in history. These data are being published consistent with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Fundamental Science Practices (FSP) in the spirit of producing timely best science. Data products from the Elwha PlaneCam are published in a directory structure with one folder per survey, and within that folder, one folder per product. A process step or steps in metadata for each product describe naming conventions and methodology for each product. A detailed description of methods and naming conventions can be found in the Entity and Attribute Overview and Process Steps of this metadata record.