Winter 2016, part A, coastal oblique aerial photographs collected from the South Carolina/North Carolina border to Assateague Island, Virginia, February 18-19, 2016

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducts baseline and storm-response photography missions to document and understand the changes in the vulnerability of the Nation's coasts to extreme storms. On February 18-19, 2016, the USGS conducted an oblique aerial photographic survey from the South Carolina/North Carolina border to Assateague Island, Virginia, aboard a Cessna 182 aircraft at an altitude of 500 feet (ft) and approximately 1,200 ft offshore (fig. 2, http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/1029/html/ds1029_fig2.html). This mission was conducted to collect data for assessing incremental changes in the beach and nearshore area since the last survey, flown in October 2015 (http://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2015-338-FA) (Morgan, 2016, [https://doi.org/10.3133/ds/995]), and the data can be used to assess future coastal change. The photographs provided are Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) images. The photograph locations are estimates of the aircraft’s positions and do not indicate the location of the feature in the images (See the Navigation Data page, http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/1029/html/ds1029_nav.html). These photographs document the configuration of the barrier islands and other coastal features at the time of the survey. ExifTool was used to add the following to the header of each photo: time of collection, Global Positioning System (GPS) latitude, GPS longitude, keywords, credit, artist (photographer), caption, copyright, and contact information. Photographs can be opened directly with any JPEG-compatible image viewer by clicking on a thumbnail on the contact sheet. All image times are recorded in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Table 1 (http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/1029/html/ds1029_table.html) provides detailed information about the assigned location, name, date, and time the photograph was taken along with links to the photograph. In addition to the photographs, a Google Earth Keyhole Markup Language (KML) file is provided and can be used to view the images by clicking on the marker and then clicking on either the thumbnail or the link above the thumbnail. The KML files were created using the photographic navigation files. Note: A KML number was assigned to each photograph to assist users in navigating the Google Earth file. These numbers correspond to the site labels in Google Earth.