Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Pacific Walrus Coastal Haulout Occurrences Interpreted from Satellite Imagery

September 7, 2022

This data release contains maps, geospatial files, and a table of the satellite imagery types with the dates when they were collected and examined to interpret the presence of, and area occupied by, walruses at terrestrial haulouts. Estimates of the land area occupied by walruses are provided based on interpretation by experienced image reviewers. The images are from a variety of Earth observing satellite imagery sources collected over coastal areas of the Chukchi Sea (northwestern Alaska and northeastern Russia) in autumn when walruses come ashore in large numbers to rest in the absence of sea ice. Earth observing imagery sources used in this data release include (but are not limited to) optical imagery collections by: (1) the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 mission and (2) the Plant Labs Planet Scope constellation, as well as synthetic aperture radar imagery collected by: (1) European Space Agency's Sentinel-1 mission; (2) the Canadian Macdonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) RADARSAT-2 satellite (C-band); (3) the DLR (German Aerospace Agency) TerraSAR-X satellite (X-band), and (4) the American Capella Space satellite constellation (X-band).

Publication Year 2022
Title Pacific Walrus Coastal Haulout Occurrences Interpreted from Satellite Imagery
DOI 10.5066/P9CSM0KN
Authors Anthony S Fischbach, David C Douglas
Product Type Data Release
Record Source USGS Digital Object Identifier Catalog
USGS Organization Alaska Science Center