Orthomosaic images from UAS surveys of the upper reservoir delta at Jenkinson Lake, El Dorado County, California
Description
This portion of the data release presents high-resolution orthomosaic images of the Jenkinson Lake upper reservoir delta in El Dorado County, California. The orthomosaics have resolutions of 2.5 centimeters per pixel and were derived from structure-from-motion (SfM) processing of aerial imagery collected during surveys with unoccupied aerial systems (UAS). The surveys were on 2021-10-13, 2021-11-04, 2022-10-25, and 2023-11-13, and were generally timed to coincide with low water level in the reservoir to maximize sub-aerial coverage. The raw imagery used to create the orthomosaics was acquired with a UAS quadcopter fitted with a Ricoh GR II digital camera featuring a global shutter. The UAS was flown on pre-programmed autonomous flight lines spaced to provide approximately 70 percent overlap between images from adjacent lines, from an approximate altitude of 100 meters above ground level (AGL), resulting in a nominal ground-sample-distance (GSD) of 2.6 centimeters per pixel. The raw imagery was geotagged using positions from the UAS onboard single-frequency autonomous GPS. Survey control was established using temporary ground control points (GCPs) consisting of a combination of small square tarps with black-and-white cross patterns and temporary chalk marks placed on the ground. The GCP positions were measured using dual-frequency real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS with corrections referenced to a static base station operating nearby. The images and GCP positions were used for structure-from-motion (SfM) processing to create topographic point clouds, high-resolution orthomosaic images, and DSMs. The orthomosaic images are provided in a three-band RGB format, with 8-bit unsigned integer values compressed using high-quality JPEG compression, and are formatted as cloud optimized GeoTIFFs with internal overviews and masks to facilitate cloud-based queries and display.