Images

Photograph taken from the ground showing the placement of a UAS ground control target at the North Santiam River

The USGS Oregon Water Science Center teamed up with the NUSO in August 2021 to explore bathymetric and remote sensing techniques to detect periphyton, a complex mixture of algae, cyanobacteria, and microbes in freshwater ecosystems. 

Example of the Landsat Collection 2 Burned Area Science Product showing the Bootleg Fire in Oregon on July 11, 2021 for tile h006V010. Left: Landsat 8 Collection 2 U.S. Analysis Ready Data Surface Reflectance image (Bands 6,5,4), Middle: Burn Classification (BC), and Right: Burn Probability (BP).

Photograph of one of the East Troublesome wildfire burn scar areas taken during a UAS mission in Colorado

In June 2021, eight months after the East Troublesome Fire burned over 193,000 acres in Colorado, NUSO performed UAS data collection over several of the burn scars representing different fire intensity levels and fuel types.

USGS scientist placing a lidar ground control target during a UAS mission at the East Troublesome Fire Burn Area in Colorado

The DOI Office of Wildland Fire (OWF), in partnership with the NUSO, in June 2021 conducted evaluations to determine best practices and methodology for data collection of post-fire events utilizing UAS.

USGS scientist Matt Burgess pilots a UAS during a joint USGS NUSO, USGS Western Ecological Research Center, USGS Western Geographic Science Center, USGS Spectroscopy Lab, and California State University Monterey Bay multi-scale hyperspectral remote sensing data collection mission in San Francisco Bay, California.

Ricoh GR natural color image taken from a UAS showing the intertidal biofilm, a slimy green layer of fungi and bacteria growing on top of mud, in San Francisco Bay, California. 

Intertidal biofilm, a slimy green layer of fungi and bacteria growing on top of mud, inhabits mudflats and is an essential component of shorebirds’ diets in San Francisco Bay, California.

Image taken from a UAS sensor of it's USGS remote pilot Matt Burgess during a Missouri River dye-trace assessment mission

Image taken from a UAS showing the non-toxic red dye used in the Missouri River dye-trace assessment 

USGS scientist Joe Adams (NUSO) setting up a GPS base station for a snow mapping project in Winter Park, Colorado. GPS base station data is used in post-processing to improve the geospatial accuracy of UAS collected data.

Have you heard about biking to work? Well, how about trying snowshoeing to work?

Two UAS fly in formation during the joint NUSO and USGS Water Resources Mission Area snow water equivalent project in Winter Park Colorado. These two UAS are carrying identical, experimental, software-defined radar sensors for measuring snow depth and density.

USGS researcher Joe Adams (NUSO) mounts a Ricoh GRII camera to a UAS that will be flying transects to collect natural color imagery during the snow water equivalent (SWE) project in Winter Park Colorado.

USGS researchers approach snow monitoring station in Andrews Meadow, within the Loch Vale watershed in Colorado.

The past 150 years of lake sediment accumulates in 35cm to construct a multi-annual isotope record that was compared with the 20-year annual tree-ring record.

USGS scientists drilling Santa Fe Lake, New Mexico as part of fieldwork conducted with the Did we start the fire? Climate, Fire and Humans project.

3D geologic framework model from west-central New Mexico; graphic shows stratigraphic units in the model being sequentially removed to reveal the deeper units. Faults used in the model appear as vertical “ribbons” as geologic layers are removed.

USGS scientists Mark Bauer and Matt Burgess preparing a UAS mounted with a lidar sensor for flight at Denver Colorado’s City Park

During the summer of 2019 NUSO researchers evaluated the viability of using UAS platforms and data collection sensors to characterize and evaluate an urban forest. 

The stratigraphic architecture of fluvial deposits reveals changes in river behavior associated with active tectonism and climatic change. 

USGS scientist Todd Burton flying a UAS at the Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park