National Uncrewed Systems Office

USGS remote pilot Todd Burton powers on UAS in White Sands National Park, April 2023

Drone-captured group photo with USGS remote pilots, White Sands National Park personnel, and USGS geologists standing in and next to a study area with fossilized tracks.

Drone selfie captured using a Skydio X2D UAS of the team standing in front of the DOE-LM Calibration Pads at the Grand Junction Regional Airport in Colorado. From left to right: Joel Doebele (DOE-LM contractor), Anji Shah (USGS), Chelsea Amaral (USGS), Brandon Mittan (GJT), Matt Burgess (USGS), and Joe Adams (USGS).

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 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

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 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.

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.

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

USGS researcher Matt Burgess remotely pilots a UAS collecting lidar data during the April 2022 USGS UASnow project at Berthoud Pass, Colorado.

A UAS collecting natural color video over one of the study sites during a joint NUSO and USGS Water Resources Mission Area snow mapping project in Winter Park, Colorado.

USGS researcher Joe Adams (NUSO) setting up a GPS base station at one of the study sites for a snow mapping project in Winter Park, Colorado. GPS base station data is used in post-processing to improve the geospatial accuracy of UAS collected data.

USGS NUSO researchers Victoria Scholl and Mark Bauer take a moment to enjoy the scenery during a UAS data collection for the snow water equivalent (SWE) project at the Berthoud Pass Colorado study site.

Please don’t walk on the biocrust!

Drone's eye view of a USGS remote pilot during a biocrust mission near Moab, UT

NUSO UAS pilot Matt Burgess captures an image of himself while landing a UAS after a flight over a biocrust site near Moab, Utah.

USGS researcher Victoria Scholl (NUSO) returns after collecting previously deployed scale bar and ground control point survey targets along the Paleocene Poison Canyon Formation in the Cimarron Canyon, New Mexico.