Natural color, multispectral, and thermal aerial imagery collected during Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) surveys at a biocrust monitoring site located near Castle Valley, Utah in February 2022
In February 2022, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Uncrewed Systems Office (NUSO) conducted uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) remote sensing flights to support biological soil crust (biocrust) research at an experiment site located near Castle Valley, Utah. Researchers at the USGS Southwest Biological Science Center have managed this site for over 50 years to study the effects of a warming climate and precipitation changes on biocrust community behavior and composition. Natural color, multispectral, thermal infrared, and hyperspectral UAS image data were collected to capture information about the composition and temperature of biocrust plots subjected to various warming and watering treatments.
This portion of the data release presents raw natural color, multispectral, and thermal images collected during the UAS surveys, all conducted at a flight altitude of 31 meters above ground level. A DJI Matrice 600 Pro UAS with approved government edition firmware carrying a Ricoh GR II sensor captured natural color red, green, blue (RGB) imagery on February 12, 2022. A MicaSense RedEdge-MX Dual was flown on February 13, 2022 over the same area to collect aerial 10-band multispectral imagery across the visible and near infrared wavelengths. Thermal data collection flights were conducted using a DJI Zenmuse XT2 camera at various local times of day across February 12 to 14 to capture diurnal changes in surface temperature. The images are provided here in zip files to facilitate bulk download.
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Complete Metadata
| @type | dcat:Dataset |
|---|---|
| accessLevel | public |
| bureauCode |
[ "010:12" ] |
| contactPoint |
{ "fn": "U.S. Geological Survey National Uncrewed Systems Office", "@type": "vcard:Contact", "hasEmail": "mailto:uas@usgs.gov" } |
| description | In February 2022, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Uncrewed Systems Office (NUSO) conducted uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) remote sensing flights to support biological soil crust (biocrust) research at an experiment site located near Castle Valley, Utah. Researchers at the USGS Southwest Biological Science Center have managed this site for over 50 years to study the effects of a warming climate and precipitation changes on biocrust community behavior and composition. Natural color, multispectral, thermal infrared, and hyperspectral UAS image data were collected to capture information about the composition and temperature of biocrust plots subjected to various warming and watering treatments. This portion of the data release presents raw natural color, multispectral, and thermal images collected during the UAS surveys, all conducted at a flight altitude of 31 meters above ground level. A DJI Matrice 600 Pro UAS with approved government edition firmware carrying a Ricoh GR II sensor captured natural color red, green, blue (RGB) imagery on February 12, 2022. A MicaSense RedEdge-MX Dual was flown on February 13, 2022 over the same area to collect aerial 10-band multispectral imagery across the visible and near infrared wavelengths. Thermal data collection flights were conducted using a DJI Zenmuse XT2 camera at various local times of day across February 12 to 14 to capture diurnal changes in surface temperature. The images are provided here in zip files to facilitate bulk download. |
| distribution |
[ { "@type": "dcat:Distribution", "title": "Digital Data", "format": "XML", "accessURL": "https://doi.org/10.5066/P14QORRX", "mediaType": "application/http", "description": "Landing page for access to the data" }, { "@type": "dcat:Distribution", "title": "Original Metadata", "format": "XML", "mediaType": "text/xml", "description": "The metadata original format", "downloadURL": "https://data.usgs.gov/datacatalog/metadata/USGS.6764a195d34e5335adadf794.xml" } ] |
| identifier | http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_6764a195d34e5335adadf794 |
| keyword |
[ "AgEagle MicaSense RedEdge-MX Dual", "Castle Valley", "Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center", "Grand County", "Moab", "RGB", "Ricoh GR II", "U.S. Geological Survey", "UAS", "USGS", "USGS:6764a195d34e5335adadf794", "Uncrewed Aircraft System", "United States", "Utah", "Zenmuse XT2", "drone", "geospatial datasets", "multispectral", "natural color", "photogrammetry", "remote sensing", "structure from motion", "thermal" ] |
| modified | 2025-07-01T00:00:00Z |
| publisher |
{ "name": "U.S. Geological Survey", "@type": "org:Organization" } |
| spatial | -109.416335, 38.674144, -109.414612, 38.674767 |
| theme |
[ "geospatial" ] |
| title | Natural color, multispectral, and thermal aerial imagery collected during Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) surveys at a biocrust monitoring site located near Castle Valley, Utah in February 2022 |
