U.S. Geological Survey
2019
Geotagged Low-Altitude Aerial Imagery From Unmanned Aerial Systems Flights Over Town Neck Beach, in Sandwich, Massachusetts, on March 30, 2016
1.0
remote-sensing image
data release
DOI:10.5066/P9CJOMBM
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Woods Hole, MA
U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal/Marine Hazards and Resources Program
https://doi.org/10.5066/P9CJOMBM
https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/5d039650e4b0e3d3115680c8
E. Montgomery
C. Sherwood
P. Traykovski
B. Irwin
J. Borden
M. Martini
S. Miner
2019
Geotagged Low-Altitude Aerial Imagery From Unmanned Aerial Systems Flights Over Town Neck Beach, in Sandwich, Massachusetts, With Associated Ground Control Points, and Transects Collected by the U.S. Geological Survey on January 22, January 25, February 11, March 30, and September 21, 2016
digital files
data release
DOI:10.5066/P9CJOMBM
Reston, VA
U.S. Geological Survey
Montgomery E.T., Sherwood, C.R., Traykovski, P.A., Irwin, B.J., Borden, J., Martini, M.A., and Miner, S., 2019, Geotagged low-altitude aerial imagery from unmanned aerial systems flights over Town Neck Beach, in Sandwich, Massachusetts, with associated ground control points, and transects collected by the U.S. Geological Survey on January 22, January 25, February 11, March 30, and September 21, 2016: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/P9CJOMBM
https://doi.org/10.5066/P9CJOMBM
https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/5cf12e89e4b056af3664e718
Low-altitude (30-120 meters above ground level) digital images of Town Neck Beach in Sandwich, Massachusetts, were obtained with a series of cameras mounted on small unmanned aerial systems (UAS, also known as a drone). Imagery was collected at close to low tide on five days to observe changes in beach and dune morphology. The images were geolocated by using the single-frequency geographic positioning system aboard the UAS. Ground control points (GCPs) were established by using temporary targets on the ground, which were located by using a real-time kinematic global navigation satellite system (RTK-GNSS) base station and rovers. The GCPs can be used as constraints during photogrammetric processing. Transect points were collected by using the same RTK-GNSS system; these can be used to evaluate photogrammetric products. This data release includes georeferenced images, image-location files, GCPs, and transect points. Collection of these data was supported by the U.S. Geological Survey Coastal/Marine Hazards and Resources Program and conducted under U.S. Geological Survey field activity numbers 2016-013-FA, 2016-043-FA, 2016-053-FA, 2016-054-FA and 2016-055-FA.
This dataset consists of overlapping aerial images obtained on March 30, 2016 that can be used with photogrammetric processing software to create point clouds, digital elevation models, and orthophoto mosaics.
For more information about this field activity, see https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2016-013-FA. Drone mapping was conducted at Town Neck Beach in Sandwich, Massachusetts between 2015 and October 2017. The digital images, ground control points and transect data from a calendar year are released together. This product contains the data collected in 2016.
20160330
ground condition
Not planned
-70.4888
-70.4732
41.7716
41.761
USGS Metadata Identifier
USGS:5d039650e4b0e3d3115680c8
None
U.S. Geological Survey
USGS
Coastal/Marine Hazards and Resources Program
CMGP
Coastal and Marine Geology Program
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
WHCMSC
shoreline
DJI Phantom 3 quadcopter
FC300X
Airshark
Sony Nex5R
shoreline photographs
photographs
photos
JPEG
low-altitude aerial imagery
aerial imagery
UAS
Unmanned aerial system
geotagged photos
field activity number 2016-013-FA
Marine Realms Information Bank (MRIB) keywords
aerial and satellite photography
USGS Thesaurus
remote sensing
aerial photography
image collections
ISO 19115 Topic Category
geoscientificInformation
oceans
location
elevation
None
USA
Sandwich
Massachusetts
Town Neck Beach
None
Public domain data from the U.S. Government are freely redistributable with proper metadata and source attribution. Please recognize the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) as the source of this information.
Christopher Sherwood
U.S. Geological Survey
mailing and physical address
U.S. Geological Survey
Woods Hole
MA
02543-1598
508-548-8700 x2269
csherwood@usgs.gov
Two different UAS were used. One system was a DJI Phantom 3 quadcopter operated by P. Traykovski with a DJI FC300X camera that acquired photos 4000 x 3000 pixels (12 megapixels), with file sizes generally between 4.5 and 6.5 MB on disc, depending on image complexity. The other system was a custom hexacopter with a Sony NEX-5R camera that acquired photos 4912 x 3264 pixels (16 megapixels), with file sizes between 6 and 13 MB, depending on image complexity. Time stamps were recorded in the EXIF portion of the images taken with both systems and, in addition, the GPS coordinates were written to the EXIF portion of images taken with the DJI system. GPS locations were added to the EXIF portion of the Airshark images as a post-processing step. The GPS used on both of the UAS has practical accuracies of 3 meters horizontally and 10 m vertically, and the time stamps are accurate to better than 1 millisecond. However, for the DJI system, the altitudes recorded in the EXIF portion of the image metadata include uncorrected offsets and may be biased by as much as 250 m. The relative altitudes stored in the XMP portion of the image metadata are accurate to +/- 10 m.
All images were acquired by either the DJI FC300x camera on the DJI Phantom3 quadcopter, or by the Sony NEX-5R camera on the Airshark hexacopter. Images were collected along pre-planned lines with 50 to 60% cross-track overlap. The camera was set to record images with 65 to 70% along-track overlap. Flight lines were oriented approximately northwest/southeast, roughly parallel to the shoreline. Flights lasted the duration of the UAS battery life (maximum about 22 minutes) or until the flight was completed or aborted. Photographs were renamed to include survey ID, Camera ID, flight ID, date and time, and original filename to ensure no duplicated filenames.
UAS flights were conducted to map Town Neck Beach in Sandwich, MA on March 30, 2016. Gaps in sequential photos exist because some photos were deleted because, for example, of overexposure, or to avoid multiple photos of the landing pad as the UAS was taking off and landing. GPS times were not recorded by the DJI firmware or in the post-processing geotagging performed for the Airshark images, but the local times in the EXIF tag "DateTime" are accurate.
Horizontal positions recorded by the UAS GPS were written directly into the EXIF portion of the images during the flights. The GPS on the UAS provided horizontal locations are considered accurate to approximately 3 meters.
Vertical positions recorded by the UAS GPS were written directly into the EXIF portion of the images during the flights. The GPS on the UAS provided vertical locations are considered accurate to approximately 10 meters.
U.S. Geological Survey
Unpublished Material
Geotagged photos collected from a UAS during field activity 2016-013-FA
raster digital data
https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2016-013-FA
disc
20160330
ground condition
geotagged photos from field activity 2016-013-FA
These JPEG images were collected by one of two unmanned aerial system (UAS). One was a DJI Phantom 3 quadcopter with an integrated DJI FC300X camera. this camera acquired photos 4000 x 3000 pixels (12 Megapixels). The camera orientation for most of these flights was near nadir, aimed directly below the UAS. The last 29 images were oblique, taken with the camera oriented 30 degrees from vertical. The second UAS was a custom design with six-rotors operated by Airshark LLC (https://are-corp.com/about-us/) with a Sony Nex-5R camera. The images collected by Airshark are 4912 x 3264 Pixels (16 Mpixels), with file sizes generally between 6 and 13 MB on disc, depending on image complexity. The camera orientation for all Airshark flights was nadir, aimed directly below the UAS. The images from each UAS are distributed in separate .zip files. For the DJI images, horizontal positions and elevations were recorded in the UAS onboard navigation and applied to the images during the flight. For the Airshark images, the record of horizontal and vertical positions was downloaded from the GPS and timing was used to infer the location of each image. This location was written to the EXIF portion of the images by the vendor (Airshark LLC) before the images were provided to the USGS. These JPEG images may be used with photogrammetric software to produce geolocated point clouds, digital elevation models, orthophoto mosaics, and other products.
Two UAS were flown to acquire these images; one owned and flown by Peter Traykovski, the other owned and operated by Airshark LLC. The DJI images were geotagged in flight by the UAS. The Airshark images were geotagged by Ian Ray of Airshark immediately after the flights and provided to the USGS as geotagged images. Both used local time, so an adjustment to GMT was made (see first parameter of step 1 below). They were also processed to add USGS required information to the EXIF headers and renamed to unique file names. These steps are described here:
1. ExifTool (https://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/, version 10.75) was used to add required attribution tags to all the photos. The command used to update the tags was: exiftool -AllDates+=4 -CopyrightNotice="Public Domain - please credit U.S. Geological Survey " -ImageDescription="Photographs of Town Neck Beach, Sandwich, Massachusetts, USA from survey 2016-013-FA " -Caption-Abstract="Town Neck Beach, Sandwich, Massachusetts, USA from survey 2016-013-FA " -Caption="Town Neck Beach, Sandwich, Massachusetts, USA from survey 2016-013-FA " -sep ", " -keywords="Town Neck Beach, Sandwich, Massachusetts, 2016-013-FA, UAS, aerial imagery, USGS " -comment="Photo from down-looking UAS camera during survey 2016-013-FA." -Credit="U.S. Geological Survey" -Contact="WHSC_data_contact@usgs.gov " -Artist="Peter Traykovski" (or "Airshark") *.JPG
2) All the JPEG images were renamed with Namexif (version 1.7, http://www.digicamsoft.com/softnamexif.html) to ensure unique filenames and compliance with USGS Coastal/Marine Hazards and Resources Program's best practices for image naming convention. Images were renamed with a survey ID prefix followed by a local USGS UID, which corresponds to a distinct UAS project; a camera ID that distinguishes among the cameras by make, model, and camera number; the image acquisition date and coordinated universal time (UTC) in ISO8601 format; and a suffix with the original image name. For example, in this image name '2016013FA_U018AS5R_20160330T145026Z_DSC05859.JPG', 2016043FA is the survey ID, U019 is the internal identifier code, AS5R is the internal camera ID for the Airshark UAS camera, 20160330 is the UTC date in format YYYYMMDD. A 'T' is used to separate date from UTC time in format HHMMSS followed by a Z (for Zulu), and 'DSC05859.JPG' is the original raw photo name appended to the end of the new filename. For images taken by the DJI Phantom 3, the camera ID is 'DJP3'.
20180104
Ellyn Montgomery
U.S. Geological Survey
Oceanographer
mailing and physical address
U.S. Geological Survey
384 Woods Hole Rd.
Woods Hole
MA
02543-1598
508-548-8700 x2356
508-457-2310
emontgomery@usgs.gov
The distribution link to download the data file directly was improperly formatted and edited so the download would work.
20200612
U.S. Geological Survey
VeeAnn A. Cross
Marine Geologist
Mailing and Physical
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole
MA
02543-1598
508-548-8700 x2251
508-457-2310
vatnipp@usgs.gov
Added keywords section with USGS persistent identifier as theme keyword.
20200807
U.S. Geological Survey
VeeAnn A. Cross
Marine Geologist
Mailing and Physical
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole
MA
02543-1598
508-548-8700 x2251
508-457-2310
vatnipp@usgs.gov
0.000001
0.000001
Decimal degrees
WGS_1984
WGS_1984
6378137.0
298.257224
WGS_1984
0.01
meters
Attribute values
There are no additional attributes besides the tags described in data quality section associated with these images.
USGS Field Activity 2016-013-FA
U.S. Geological Survey - ScienceBase
mailing and physical address
Denver Federal Center, Building 810, Mail Stop 302
Denver
CO
80225
1-888-275-8747
sciencebase@usgs.gov
This data release includes raw data in the form of geotagged aerial images in JPEG format. The aerial images are distributed in 6 zip files containing images named 2016013FA_U018_Sandwich_*.zip. Where * may be 'AS_f#' indicates Airshark obtained the images and 'f#' indicates the flight number or 'PT_nadir (_oblique)' indicating Peter Traykovski obtained the images with the camera looking down (or oblique). 2016013FA_U018_Sandwich_AS_f1.zip contains 125 images, 2016013FA_U018_Sandwich_AS_f2.zip contains 158 images, 2016013FA_U018_Sandwich_AS_f3.zip contains 152 images, 2016013FA_U018_Sandwich_AS_f4.zip contains 126 images,2016013FA_U018_Sandwich_PT_nadir.zip contains 459 images, 2016013FA_U018_Sandwich_PT_oblique.zip contains 29 images.
Neither the U.S. Government, the Department of the Interior, nor the USGS, nor any of their employees, contractors, or subcontractors, make any warranty, express or implied, nor assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, nor represent that its use would not infringe on privately owned rights. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the U.S. Geological Survey in the use of these data or related materials. Although these data and associated metadata have been reviewed for accuracy and completeness and approved for release by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and have been processed successfully on a computer system at the USGS, no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the display or utility of the data for other purposes, nor on all computer systems, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. The USGS or the U.S. Government shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
JPEG
1.0.0
JPEG
Zipped files contain geotagged aerial images collected by the U.S. Geological Survey - Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center along Sandwich Town Neck Beach, MA. These data are contained organized by flight number.
Use WinZip, 7zip, Peazip or pkUnzip
1214.5
https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/5d039650e4b0e3d3115680c8
https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/file/get/5d039650e4b0e3d3115680c8?name=2016013FA_U018_sandwich_AS_f1.zip
https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/file/get/5d039650e4b0e3d3115680c8?name=2016013FA_U018_sandwich_AS_f2.zip
https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/file/get/5d039650e4b0e3d3115680c8?name=2016013FA_U018_sandwich_AS_f3.zip
https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/file/get/5d039650e4b0e3d3115680c8?name=2016013FA_U018_sandwich_AS_f4.zip
https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/file/get/5d039650e4b0e3d3115680c8?name=2016013FA_U018_sandwich_PT_nadir.zip
https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/file/get/5d039650e4b0e3d3115680c8?name=2016013FA_U018_sandwich_PT_oblique.zip
https://doi.org/P9CJOMBM
The first link is to the page containing the data. The next four are links to download all data available from the flights flown by AirShark as zip files. The next two are the flights flown by P. Traykovski with different camera orientations as zip files. The final link is to the publication landing page. The data page (first link) may have additional data access options, including web services.
none
Use of these files requires software capable of opening JPEG images and, if desired, capable of reading the associated EXIF information.
20220707
Ellyn Montgomery
U.S. Geological Survey
oceanographer
mailing and physical
U.S. Geological Survey
384 Woods Hole Rd.
Woods Hole
MA
02543-1598
508-548-8700 x2356
508-457-2310
whsc_data_contact@usgs.gov
The metadata contact email address is a generic address in the event the metadata contact is no longer with the USGS or the email is otherwise invalid.
Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata
FGDC-STD-001-1998
local time
None
None