Images

A UAS collecting natural color video over one of the study sites during a joint NUSO and USGS Water Resources Mission Area snow mapping project in Winter Park, Colorado.

USGS researcher Joe Adams (NUSO) setting up a GPS base station at one of the study sites 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.

USGS NUSO researchers Victoria Scholl and Mark Bauer take a moment to enjoy the scenery during a UAS data collection for the snow water equivalent (SWE) project at the Berthoud Pass Colorado study site.

Please don’t walk on the biocrust!

Drone's eye view of a USGS remote pilot during a biocrust mission near Moab, UT

NUSO UAS pilot Matt Burgess captures an image of himself while landing a UAS after a flight over a biocrust site near Moab, Utah.

USGS Matt Burgess operating a UAS in flight at the USGS Canyonlands Research Station near Moab, Utah

USGS scientists Victoria Scholl (USGS NUSO) and Armin Howell (USGS Canyonlands Research Station) placing UAS ground control targets at the USGS Canyonlands Research Station near Moab, Utah

USGS scientist Mark Bauer in front of the Arrow Canyon Flood Control Dam in Nevada during a UAS mission

USGS remote pilot Matt Burgess at Arrow Canyon in Clark County, Nevada

USGS scientist Joe Adams preparing a UAS mounted EPA Kolibri emissions sampler at the annual grassland burns at Konza Prairie Biological Station

Image of proposed slack water harbor location of the Arkansas River taken from a natural color sensor mounted on a UAS

USGS researchers Joe Adams and Matt Burgess preparing for UAS flights at the NOAA Table Mountain site just north of Boulder Colorado

USGS scientist Victoria Scholl collecting a spectral measurement in a wetland at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The PVC pipe quadrat was placed around materials of interest (in this image, pink Salicornia vegetation) and the small panel was used as a white reference prior to spectrometer measurements.

Sedimentary structures, such as ripple bedforms, are used to determine depositional environments and flow directions. 

USGS researcher Victoria Scholl (NUSO) returns after collecting previously deployed scale bar and ground control point survey targets along the Paleocene Poison Canyon Formation in the Cimarron Canyon, New Mexico.

UAS ground control point survey targets deployed along the Cimarron Canyon in New Mexico

One of the ground control point survey targets deployed along the Paleocene Poison Canyon Formation in the Cimarron Canyon and used to provide accurate GPS data during the UAS data collection flights.

USGS scientist Victoria Scholl (NUSO) places a scale bar and ground control point survey target along the Paleocene Poison Canyon Formation in the Cimarron Canyon. GPS data from these targets and derived from the UAS collected imagery helps ensure high positional and geometric accuracy of georeferenced data products including 3D models.

USGS scientist Mark Bauer reviews the imagery being acquired from a UAS at the Cimarron Canyon in New Mexico

USGS remote pilot Todd Burton replaces UAS batteries during a mission at the Cimarron Canyon in New Mexico. Batteries last for only around 15 minutes, therefore a minimum of six sets are typically taken into the field which allows each used set to be cooled down, recharged, and then reused in the field.

Prior to the UAS flights USGS researchers Amy Gilmer, Theresa Schwartz, and Victoria Scholl hike up Cimarron Canyon in New Mexico to place ground control targets and scale bars.

Prior to the UAS flights USGS researchers Amy Gilmer, Theresa Schwartz, and Victoria Scholl hike up Cimarron Canyon in New Mexico to place ground control targets and scale bars.