Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Aerial Imagery of the North Carolina Coast: 2020-08-02, Pre-Hurricane Isaias

Metadata Updated: September 24, 2025

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Remote Sensing Coastal Change (RSCC) project collects aerial imagery along coastal swaths with optimized endlap/sidelap and precise position information to create high-resolution orthomosaics, three-dimensional (3D) point clouds, and digital elevation/surface models (DEMs/DSMs) using Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry methods. These products are valuable for measuring topographic and landscape change, and for understanding coastal vulnerability and response to disturbance events. A nadir (vertical) aerial imagery survey was conducted from Cape Lookout, North Carolina to Corolla, North Carolina on August 2nd, 2020, to document pre-storm conditions in preparation for the passage of Hurricane Isaias on August 3, 2020. The observations along the coastline cover an approximately 245-kilometer-long by 300 to 700-meter-wide swath of coastline and encompass both highly developed towns as well as natural undeveloped areas, including the federal lands of Cape Lookout National Seashore and Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Low altitude (300 meters above ground level) digital aerial imagery were acquired with a manned, fixed-wing aircraft using the "Precision Airborne Camera (PAC)" System (version 2). The PAC system is operated by C.W. Wright and consists of a mounted fixed-lens digital camera, along with a custom integrated survey-grade Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver. Data were collected in shore-parallel lines, flying at approximately 50 meters per second (m/s) and capturing true color imagery at 1 hertz (Hz), resulting in image footprints with approximately 75-80% endlap, 60-70% sidelap, and a 5.3-centimeter (cm) ground sample distance (GSD). The precise time of each image capture (flash event) was recorded, and the corresponding aircraft position was computed during post-processing of the GNSS data. Precise image positions can then be determined by accounting for the lever arm offsets between the aircraft GNSS antenna and the camera lens, which are provided in the PAC System metadata (Kranenburg and others, 2023, https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/data-services/rscc/PrecisionAirborneCameraSystem). Position data, provided as latitude/longitude/ellipsoid height, is referenced to the North American Datum of 1983 National Spatial Reference System 2011 (NAD83(2011)) coordinate system.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 24, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 24, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-8b86d6a4-32fa-45e4-ad74-b5507aaf43dc
Data Last Modified 2023-10-06T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 73035153-214e-4e3a-81b9-ef29238bfeff
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -76.54009972, 34.57030258, -75.46095397, 36.25794243
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 6403c270b13511f3af4396dcae671d8b79e00cd5882380c7eab3c74eea37c8a5
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -76.54009972, 34.57030258, -76.54009972, 36.25794243, -75.46095397, 36.25794243, -75.46095397, 34.57030258, -76.54009972, 34.57030258}

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.