Images

Physical Scientist Michelle Leung prepares to drill tree cores in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado. Tree cores provide seasonal to centennial records of past precipitation and provide local to regional reconstructions of hydroclimate.

Michelle Leung and Becky Brice collect samples from fire-scarred trees in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado. Trees provide records of past droughts, fires, and the response of vegetation to a changing snowpack.

Physical Scientist Michelle Leung and Geographer Becky Brice collect samples from fire-scarred trees in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado. Trees provide records of past droughts, fires, and the response of vegetation to a changing snowpack.

Wearing safety vest, USGS Geographer Dr. Matthew Burgess prepares drone aircraft for research flight.

Drone-captured photo of reference targets with various materials and reflectance levels used during a field campaign in support of radiometric calibration research led by USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) researchers in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

USGS ECCOE and NUSO personnel at the UAS ground control station discussing flight parameters for the day’s drone flights near EROS

Left to Right:
Back Row -- Mahesh Shrestha (ECCOE), Tom Cecere (NLI HQ), Jeff Irwin (ECCOE), Joe Adams (NUSO)
Front Row -- Matt Burgess (NUSO), Victoria Scholl (NUSO)

USGS NUSO scientists Matt Burgess and Victoria Scholl check the hyperspectral sensor mounted on a UAS prior to flight in South Dakota

USGS researchers Lance Brady and Joe Adams (NUSO) calibrate the compass of an AgEagle/MicaSense multispectral payload mounted on a UAS prior to a flight in South Dakota. This involves lifting and rotating the aircraft in specific sequences as indicated on the connected tablet.

A freshly opened lake core from Alaska with continuous sediment layers that get older from the top of the core to the bottom. 

The NUSO, along with U.S. Bureau of Reclamation participated in a June 2023 test and evaluation of an uncrewed aircraft’s 3D scan capability for assisting with infrastructure inspections near Heeney, Colorado at the Green Mountain Reservoir.

NUSO remote pilot Mark Bauer getting ready to launch a UAS at Ackerson Meadow in California

Mark Bauer (USGS NUSO) observing a UAS in flight at California's Ackerson Meadow controlled by remote pilot Victoria Scholl (USGS NUSO)

Bridge over the Green Mountain Reservoir used as a test site for UAS infrastructure inspections

The NUSO, along with U.S. Bureau of Reclamation participated in a June 2023 test and evaluation of an uncrewed aircraft’s 3D scan capability for assisting with infrastructure inspections near Heeney, Colorado at the Green Mountain Reservoir.

UAS mounted with a lidar sensor in flight at the Ackerson Meadow in California

USGS NUSO scientist Mark Bauer measuring the height of a GNSS receiver secured onto a survey tripod during a UAS mission in California

USGS remote pilot Todd Burton flying a UAS at a bridge over the Green Mountain Reservoir

The NUSO, along with U.S. Bureau of Reclamation participated in a June 2023 test and evaluation of an uncrewed aircraft’s 3D scan capability for assisting with infrastructure inspections near Heeney, Colorado at the Green Mountain Reservoir.

UAS operations near Moab, Utah for carbon sequestration research on public lands

USGS NUSO (Victoria Scholl and Matt Burgess) and DOI OAS (Rich Thurau) remote pilots prepare a Headwall Nano-Hyperspec hyperspectral sensor prior to a UAS flight over a BLM AIM plot near Moab, Utah

Rich Thurau (DOI OAS) and Matt Burgess (USGS NUSO) calibrating a multispectral sensor mounted on a UAS prior to a flight in Moab Utah

Matt Burgess (USGS NUSO) flying a UAS with an attached multispectral sensor at a BLM AIM plot in Utah

Sand sampled for geochemistry and cobbles sampled for cosmogenic radionuclide (CRN) dating