Geotagged Low-Altitude Aerial Imagery From Unmanned Aerial System Flights Over Town Neck Beach, in Sandwich, Massachusetts, on September 21, 2016

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Frequently anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
Geotagged Low-Altitude Aerial Imagery From Unmanned Aerial System Flights Over Town Neck Beach, in Sandwich, Massachusetts, on September 21, 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=2016-043-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 System Flights Over Town Neck Beach, in Sandwich, Massachusetts, on September 21, 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 System 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//10.5066/P9CJOMBM.
  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -70.4886
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -70.4736
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 41.7712
    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: 21-Sep-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 2016-043-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 September 21, 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 2016-043-FA (source 1 of 1)
    U.S. Geological Survey, Unpublished Material, Geotagged photos collected from a UAS during field activity 2016-043-FA.

    Online Links:

    Type_of_Source_Media: disc
    Source_Contribution:
    These JPEG images were collected by a Sony Nex5R camera mounted on a custom design AUS with six-rotors operated by Airshark LLC (https://www.airshark.io/en/company/about/). The images collected by Airshark are 4912 x 3264 Pixels (16 Megapixels), with file sizes generally between 4 and 6 MB on disc, depending on image complexity. The camera orientation for all Airshark flights was "down", aimed directly below the UAS. Horizontal positions and elevations were recorded in the UAS onboard navigation and applied to the images during the flight. 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: 05-Apr-2018 (process 1 of 3)
    The images collected by the Airshark UAS camera used local time and were 4 minutes off the equivalent GMT times logged by the navigation, so time adjustments were made as part of the geotagging (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 geotag the images using the UAS navigation for each of the 4 flights. The conversion of the image times to GMT and 4 minute time adjustment was also accomplished in this step using this command: exiftool –AllDates+=3:56:0 -geosync=-0:4:0 -geotag "./location.gpx" *.jpg
    2) 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 -CopyrightNotice="Public Domain - please credit U.S. Geological Survey " -ImageDescription="Photographs of Town Neck Beach, Sandwich, Massachusetts, USA from survey 2016-043-FA " -Caption-Abstract="Town Neck Beach, Sandwich, Massachusetts, USA from survey 2016-043-FA " -Caption="Town Neck Beach, Sandwich, Massachusetts, USA from survey 2016-043-FA " -sep ", " -keywords="Town NeckBeach, Sandwich, Massachusetts, 2016-043-FA, UAS, aerial imagery, USGS " -comment="Photo from down-looking UAS camera during survey 2016-043-FA." -Credit="U.S. Geological Survey" -Contact="WHSC_data_contact@usgs.gov " -Artist="Airshark" *.JPG
    3) 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 '2016043FA_U019AS5R_20160921T130459Z_DSC08437.JPG', 2016043FA is the survey ID, U019 is the internal identifier code, AS5R is the internal camera ID for the Airshark UAS camera, 20160921 is the date in format YYYYMMDD. A 'T' is used to separate the date from UTC time in format HHMMSS followed by a 'Z', and 'DSC08437.JPG' is the original raw photo name appended to the end of the new filename. 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?
    The images were acquired with a Sony NEX-5R camera. The images are 4912 x 3264 Pixels (16 megapixels), with file sizes generally between 6.5 and 13 MB on disc, depending on image complexity. Time stamps and GPS locations were recorded in the EXIF portion of the images. The GPS used on the UAS has practical accuracies of 3 meters horizontally and 10 m vertically, and the time stamps are accurate to better than 1 millisecond.
  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?
    Horizontal positions recorded by the UAS GPS were written written into the EXIF portion of the images when they were geotagged. 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 into the EXIF portion of the images when they were geotagged. 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 by Airshark LLC to map the Town Neck Beach shoreline in Sandwich, MA on September 21, 2016. During the four flights, photographs were captured every 4 seconds. Gaps in sequential photos may 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.
  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?
    All flights lasted the duration of the UAS battery life (maximum 15 minutes) or until the flight was completed or aborted. The cameras were set to record images at pre-determined spacing to provide 65 to 70% along-track overlap. 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 by flight in 4 zip files containing images named 2016043FA_U019_Sandwich_AS_f#.zip; 'AS' indicates Airshark obtained the images, and'f#' indicates the flight number. 2016043FA_U019_Sandwich_AS_f1.zip contains 132 images, 2016043FA_U019_Sandwich_AS_f2.zip contains 158 images, 2016043FA_U019_Sandwich_AS_f3.zip contains 152 images, 2016043FA_U019_Sandwich_AS_f4.zip contains 108 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 responsibilityis 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/2016043FA_Sandwich_ASimages_meta.faq.html>
Generated by mp version 2.9.51 on Thu Jul 14 11:37:39 2022