Images

Working in the Denver Radiogenic Isotope Lab, Hannah Tompkins loading strontium samples on a turret with 21 individual filament locations.

USGS scientists Joe Adams and Matt Burgess conduct a UAS lidar data collection flight at the Vicksburg National Military Park

NUSO scientists, along with USGS landslide researchers, in December 2022 undertook a topographic analysis of slide-prone areas of the National Park Service Vicksburg National Military Park near Vicksburg, Mississippi.
 

USGS employee Joe Adams positions a UAS over a calibration panel to capture a multispectral image with the attached MicaSense Dual multispectral sensor. This calibration image will be used to post-process the imagery in support of radiometric calibration research conducted at the Denver Federal Center in Colorado. 

USGS scientist Matt Burgess checking a UAS with a mounted lidar sensor at Vicksburg National Military Park 

NUSO scientists, along with USGS landslide researchers, in December 2022 undertook a topographic analysis of slide-prone areas of the National Park Service Vicksburg National Military Park near Vicksburg, Mississippi.

USGS employees from the USGS National Uncrewed Systems Office (NUSO) and the USGS EROS CalVal Center of Excellence (ECCOE) during a UAS test in a Denver Federal Center parking lot.

USGS NUSO scientists act as a visual observer (Joe Adams left) and a UAS remote pilot (Matt Burgess right) during a UAS flight at the Denver Federal Center

Research Geologist Natalie Kehrwald cuts a “cookie” from a fire-scarred tree in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, New Mexico. Cookies are cross-sections of trees that provide information on the interactions between past droughts and fires. 

Dendrochronologist Becky Brice using laboratory chain saw to sample remnant wood in southern Colorado.

Red circles on the map are midden-sample sites locations included in the midden database.

USGS researcher Victoria Scholl (NUSO) checks the image quality of photos captured using the Mavic Pro UAS over a bog in Alaska. These photos will be used to generate a Structure from Motion photogrammetry orthomosaic. 

UAS carrying the methane sensor (left) and a smaller UAS used to collect videos and photos (right) in Alaska. Both UAS are resting on wooden pallets that the team set onto the bog for a dry and flat takeoff/landing location.

Victoria Scholl (NUSO), Kristen Manies (GMEG Science Center), and Joe Adams (NUSO) hiked the UAS gear through the woods and across a network of boardwalks to access the bog site at the BNZ LTER.

Plane light optical microscope image of a monazite grain with a 5 µm laser crater

Image from a UAS acquired natural color video showing the UAS-mounted Kolibri sensor being flown through the smoke plume during one of the in-situ oil burns at a Poker Flat Research Range retention pond in Alaska.

Plane light optical microscope image of a monazite grain with a 15 µm laser crater

Researchers flying UAS at in-situ burns at the Poker Flat Research Range near Fairbanks, Alaska (Left: Joe Adams USGS NUSO)

USGS researcher Joe Adams tacking down a calibration tarp at the Eastern Ecological Science Center - Leetown Research Laboratory.

Uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) hyperspectral data collection flight over a reservoir at the Eastern USGS Eastern Ecological Science Center - Leetown Research Laboratory (EESC-LRL) in West Virginia.

High altitude lakes provide opportunities to examine interactions between fires, drought and human activity across decadal to millennial timescales. The locations of these lakes near tree line make them more susceptible to climate-related changes in vegetation and associated biomass burning. 

: A 25-cm section of a lake sediment core with continuous volumetric samples removed (1 cm³). The remaining cavities are filled with closed cell to preserve the core structures for future work.

Bear Lake, Colorado is a high alpine lake near tree line that is affected by regional to local fires and vegetation changes.