Airborne Geophysical Survey Inventory of the Conterminous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico (ver. 4.0, April 2023)

This data release is a compilation of the locations of airborne geophysical surveys in the United States. The inventory documents public airborne geophysical surveys primarily flown by or contracted by the USGS from 1943 to present. In addition, surveys from the State of Alaska, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys (DGGS): Airborne GeophysWeb, the Bureau of Land Management, the Department of Energy and other state agencies have also been included. The surveys have contributed to studies under USGS programs including Water, Geologic Mapping, Minerals, Energy, Environmental Health, Ecosystems, Hazards, and Climate. This dataset contains locations for known and inventoried surveys, shows the footprints of the survey area, and summarizes data type (aeromagnetic (M), electromagnetic (EM), radiometric (R), gravity (G), and very low frequency EM (V)) and survey details. This dataset continues inventory and documentation efforts including digitized and digital geophysical surveys of state and national compilations (Connard and others, 1999; USGS, 2002; Chandler, 2007; USGS, 1999; Hill and others, 2009; USGS, 2018; DGGS, 2019; Johnson and others, 2019) in addition to many individual published surveys (Open-File Reports (OFR), Geophysical Investigations (GP), and data releases to ScienceBase; a trusted digital repository (USGS, 2019). Access to the survey data itself is also provided where available as the inventory catalogs completed and contracted surveys including those that have not been published to date.

In support of the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) (Day, 2019) suitability rankings of airborne geophysical surveys for supporting geologic studies were evaluated and determined for aeromagnetic and aeroradiometric data by Eric Anderson, Ben Drenth, V. J. S. Grauch, Anne McCafferty, Anji Shah, and Dan Scheirer of the USGS. The aeromagnetic suitability rankings documented by Drenth and Grauch (2019) were applied to the geophysical survey inventory based on data type, survey specifications, and data issues with 1 being the best and 5 being the least suitable. The criteria used to rank the surveys are explained in Table 1 (Drenth and Grauch, 2019) and described in detail in the process step of this metadata. In addition aeroradiometric rankings were also derived by Anjana K. Shah and have been incorporated.

References cited

Chandler, V.W., 2007, Upgrade of Aeromagnetic Databases and Processing Systems at the Minnesota Geological Survey: Minnesota Geological Survey, OFR 07-06, Retrieved from the University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy, http://hdl.handle.net/11299/199777.

Connard, G.G., Saltus, R.W., Hill, P.L., Carlson, L., and Milicevic B., 1999, Alaska digital aeromagnetic database description, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 99-503, https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr99503.

Day, W.C., 2019, The Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI)-Mapping the Nation's critical mineral resources (ver. 1.1, March 2019): U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2019-3007, 2 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/fs20193007.

Drenth, B.J., and V.J.S. Grauch, 2019, Finding the gaps in America's magnetic maps, Eos, 100, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019EO120449.

Johnson, M.R., Ball, L.B., and Smith, B.D., 2019, Airborne Electromagnetic (AEM) Survey Inventory: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9LTQEFL.

Hill, P.L., Kucks, R.P., and Ravat, D., 2009, Aeromagnetic and aeroradiometric data for the conterminous United States and Alaska from the National Uranium Resources Evaluation (NURE) Program of the U.S. Department of Energy: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2009-1129, https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20091129.

State of Alaska, Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys (DGGS), 2019, Airborne GeophysWeb, accessed December 6, 2018 at, http://maps.dggs.alaska.gov/gp/.

U.S. Geological Survey, 2002, Digital Aeromagnetic Datasets for the Conterminous United States and Hawaii - A Companion to the North American Magnetic Anomaly Map: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2002-361, https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr02361.

U.S. Geological Survey, 1999, Digitized aeromagnetic datasets for the conterminous United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 99-557, https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr99557.

U.S. Geological Survey, 2018, Airborne Geophysical Surveys, accessed December 6, 2018 at, https://mrdata.usgs.gov/airborne/.

U.S. Geological Survey, 2019, ScienceBase - Catalog, accessed July 25, 2019 at, https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/.