Airborne magnetic and radiometric survey, Sierra Madre-Elkhead Mountains-Medicine Bow Mountains region, Wyoming and Colorado, 2023-2024

This data release provides digital flight line data for a high-resolution airborne magnetic and radiometric survey over the Sierra Madre-Elkhead Mountains-Medicine Bow Mountains region of southern Wyoming and northern Colorado. The airborne survey was funded by the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative. The survey was designed to meet complementary needs related to geologic mapping and characterization of mineral resource potential. A total of about 72,000 line km of magnetic and radiometric data were acquired over an irregular-shaped area of about 13,000 km2. Data were collected from a helicopter flown at a nominal terrain clearance of 100 meters (m) above topography along N-S flight lines spaced at 200 m intervals. Tie lines were flown in an E-W direction every 2000 m. Data were collected by New-Sense Geophysics Ltd. and Merrick-Surdex Joint Venture, LLP, under contract to the USGS using a helicopter with a magnetometer mounted in a stinger and a fully calibrated gamma-ray spectrometer. The survey operated out of airports in Laramie (WY), Saratoga (WY), Steamboat Springs (CO), Craig (CO), Walden (CO), and Loveland (CO) from September of 2023 to September of 2024. Files that are available in this publication include flight line data for the magnetic survey, flight line data for the radiometric survey and a report describing the survey parameters, field operations, quality control and data reduction procedures. A zip file is provided that contains the contractor's deliverable products that includes Geosoft databases and grids for the magnetic and radiometric survey and the report describing the survey and data reduction.