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Natural color structure-from-motion digital elevation and orthomosaic data products from Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) surveys of dryland sites 40 km south of Moab, Utah in May 2023

Metadata Updated: October 29, 2025

In support of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Southwest Biological Science Center researchers, and in coordination with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), the USGS National Uncrewed Systems Office (NUSO) conducted uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) remote sensing flights over two BLM Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) plots at the NEON Moab site in Utah for multi-scale carbon sequestration research on public lands. The UAS data collected include natural color, multispectral, and hyperspectral imagery, and lidar to capture diverse information about vegetation and soils on drylands. The first site (“site 1”) features intact sagebrush and was mapped on May 3, 2023. The second site (“site 7”) is located on a grazed rangeland environment and was mapped on May 5, 2023. These UAS surveys were conducted in early May 2023 to coincide spatially and temporally with ground-based BLM AIM sampling and airplane-based remote sensing surveys by NEON. This portion of the data release presents natural color data products from low-altitude UAS flights at two dryland sites approximately 40 km south of Moab, Utah. A Skydio X2D UAS was flown at an altitude of 15 meters above ground level to capture natural color imagery. Survey control was established using Propeller AeroPoint temporary ground control points (GCPs) distributed throughout the survey area. GCPs were post-processed with corrections from a concurrently operating Trimble R8s GNSS base station. Natural color images were processed in photogrammetry software using the GCPs to yield structure-from-motion (SfM) point clouds (.las format), digital surface models (DSM, in .tif format), and red, green, blue (RGB) 3-band orthomosaics (.tif format).

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 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 29, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 29, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-64ee43a8d34e4b6d8ab70f77
Data Last Modified 2024-02-27T00:00:00Z
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 c72142d3-a630-437d-b36e-7ee0dc42b27c
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -109.42110, 38.20620, -109.40298, 38.29108
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 063dfad11ae47a129d434b704973c9b8667ec5ab25f3d1f4708583b99ee5df6b
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -109.42110, 38.20620, -109.42110, 38.29108, -109.40298, 38.29108, -109.40298, 38.20620, -109.42110, 38.20620}

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