Aerial Photographs (from AMES Pilot Land Data System); USGS EDC, Sioux Falls

The aerial photography inventoried by the Pilot Land Data System (PLDS) at NASA AMES Research Center has been transferred to the USGS EROS Data Center. The photos were obtained from cameras mounted on high and medium altitude aircraft based at the NASA Ames Research Center. Several cameras with varying focal lengths, lenses and film formats are used, but the Wild RC-10 camera with a focal length of 152 millimeters and a 9 by 9 inch film format is most common. The positive transparencies are typically used for ancillary ground checks in conjunctions with digital processing for the same sites. The aircraft flights, specifically requested by scientists performing approved research, often simultaneously collect data using other sensors on
board (e.g. Thematic Mapper Simulators (TMS) and Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanners). High altitude color infrared photography is used regularly by government agencies for such applications as crop yield forecasting, timber inventory and defoliation assessment, water resource management, land use surveys, water pollution monitoring, and natural disaster assessment.

To order, specify the latitude and longitude of interest. You will then be given a list of photos available for that location. In some cases, "flight books" are available at EDC that describe the nature of the mission during which the photos were taken and other attribute information. The customer service personnel have access to these books for those photo sets for which the books exist.