Imagery data for the Vegetation Mapping Inventory Project of Cape Hatteras National Seashore

This reference contains the imagery data used in the completion of the baseline vegetation inventory project for the NPS park unit. Orthophotos, raw imagery, and scanned aerial photos are common files held here.

The SECN contracted with Aero-Metric Inc., through the USGS Rolla, Missouri office to provide color infrared aerial photographs. Color infrared (CIR) imagery was chosen because healthy green vegetation is a very strong reflector of infrared radiation and appears bright red in color infrared imagery, which helps tremendously in vegetation mapping efforts. This set of photography covered the full project boundary extent plus a buffer surrounding the boundary of 500 meters. The flight path and centers of the aerial photo mission were planned with 60% forward-lap and 30% side-lap in order to assure stereo viewing. Airborne GPS data were provided by Aero-Metric, Inc, as were ground-check point data. The project was referenced to the North American Datum of 1983/2007 (NAD83/07), Universal Transverse Mercator Zone 17 horizontally and to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 vertically. The aerial photographs were taken on 31 May 2009 at a scale of 1:12,000.