Ground control and transect points collected during unmanned aerial systems (UAS) flights: Plum Island Estuary and Parker River NWR (PIEPR), February 27th, 2018

Low-altitude (80 and 100 meters above ground level) digital images were taken over an area of the Plum Island Estuary and Parker River National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Massachusetts using 3DR Solo unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) on February 27, 2018. These images were collected as part of an effort to document marsh stability over time and quantify sediment movement using UAS technology. Each UAS was equipped with either a Ricoh GRII digital camera for natural color photos, used to produce digital elevation models and ortho images, or a MicaSense RedEdge multi-spectral camera that captures five specific bands of the visible spectrum (blue, green, red, red edge, and near-infrared), which can be used to classify vegetation. The MicaSense camera covered a smaller subsection of the same polygonal area of the marsh that the Ricoh imaged. Some photographs contain black and white targets used as ground control points (GCPs), which were surveyed by a field crew with a high-precision Real Time Kinematic Global Position System. This data release includes the original images from both cameras, as well as a csv file containing the latitude and longitude coordinates, in Universal Transverse Mercator Zone 19 referenced to the North American Datum of 1983, of the ground control points needed to complete any photogrammetry projects using the original photographs, and GPS transect points used to evaluate the photogrammetry products created.