Geotagged Low-Altitude Aerial Imagery From Unmanned Aerial Systems Flights Over Town Neck Beach, in Sandwich, Massachusetts, on March 30, 2016

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Frequently anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
Geotagged Low-Altitude Aerial Imagery From Unmanned Aerial Systems Flights Over Town Neck Beach, in Sandwich, Massachusetts, on March 30, 2016
Abstract:
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.
Supplemental_Information:
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.
  1. How might this data set be cited?
    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: data release DOI:10.5066/P9CJOMBM, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal/Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Woods Hole, MA.

    Online Links:

    This is part of the following larger work.

    Montgomery, E., Sherwood, C., Traykovski, P., Irwin, B., Borden, J., Martini, M., 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: data release DOI:10.5066/P9CJOMBM, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details:
    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
  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -70.4888
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -70.4732
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 41.7716
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 41.761
  3. What does it look like?
  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?
    Calendar_Date: 30-Mar-2016
    Currentness_Reference:
    ground condition
  5. What is the general form of this data set?
    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: remote-sensing image
  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?
    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?
    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?
      Horizontal positions are specified in geographic coordinates, that is, latitude and longitude. Latitudes are given to the nearest 0.000001. Longitudes are given to the nearest 0.000001. Latitude and longitude values are specified in Decimal degrees. The horizontal datum used is WGS_1984.
      The ellipsoid used is WGS_1984.
      The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378137.0.
      The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/298.257224.
      Vertical_Coordinate_System_Definition:
      Altitude_System_Definition:
      Altitude_Datum_Name: WGS_1984
      Altitude_Resolution: 0.01
      Altitude_Distance_Units: meters
      Altitude_Encoding_Method: Attribute values
  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?
    Entity_and_Attribute_Overview:
    There are no additional attributes besides the tags described in data quality section associated with these images.
    Entity_and_Attribute_Detail_Citation: USGS Field Activity 2016-013-FA

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)
    • U.S. Geological Survey
  2. Who also contributed to the data set?
  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?
    Christopher Sherwood
    U.S. Geological Survey
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Woods Hole, MA

    508-548-8700 x2269 (voice)
    csherwood@usgs.gov

Why was the data set created?

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.

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?
    geotagged photos from field activity 2016-013-FA (source 1 of 1)
    U.S. Geological Survey, Unpublished Material, Geotagged photos collected from a UAS during field activity 2016-013-FA.

    Online Links:

    Type_of_Source_Media: disc
    Source_Contribution:
    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.
  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?
    Date: 04-Jan-2018 (process 1 of 3)
    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'. Person who carried out this activity:
    Ellyn Montgomery
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Oceanographer
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Woods Hole, MA

    508-548-8700 x2356 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    emontgomery@usgs.gov
    Date: 12-Jun-2020 (process 2 of 3)
    The distribution link to download the data file directly was improperly formatted and edited so the download would work. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: VeeAnn A. Cross
    Marine Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA

    508-548-8700 x2251 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    vatnipp@usgs.gov
    Date: 07-Aug-2020 (process 3 of 3)
    Added keywords section with USGS persistent identifier as theme keyword. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: VeeAnn A. Cross
    Marine Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA

    508-548-8700 x2251 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    vatnipp@usgs.gov
  3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?

How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?

  1. How well have the observations been checked?
    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.
  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?
    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.
  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?
    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.
  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?
    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.
  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?
    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.

How can someone get a copy of the data set?

Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?
Access_Constraints None
Use_Constraints 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.
  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)
    U.S. Geological Survey - ScienceBase
    Denver Federal Center, Building 810, Mail Stop 302
    Denver, CO

    1-888-275-8747 (voice)
    sciencebase@usgs.gov
  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set? 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.
  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?
    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.
  4. How can I download or order the data?
  5. What hardware or software do I need in order to use the data set?
    Use of these files requires software capable of opening JPEG images and, if desired, capable of reading the associated EXIF information.

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 07-Jul-2022
Metadata author:
Ellyn Montgomery
U.S. Geological Survey
oceanographer
U.S. Geological Survey
Woods Hole, MA

508-548-8700 x2356 (voice)
508-457-2310 (FAX)
whsc_data_contact@usgs.gov
Contact_Instructions:
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.
Metadata standard:
Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)
This page is <https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/catalog/whcmsc/SB_data_release/DR_P9CJOMBM/2016013FA_Sandwich_PTASimages_meta.faq.html>
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