About Orthoimagery

What is Orthoimagery?

Orthoimagery looks like a photograph but any distortions caused by the tilt of the camera or topography of the land have been removed, so Orthoimages are geospatially accurate and can be used as maps. Orthoimagery is one of the foundational geographic theme layers for the digital National Map. The images are cloud free, seamless, and available in natural color, black and white, or color infrared. Seamless Orthoimagery means when you pan over an area on the Map Viewer or when you download the area you need, the data is a continuous image.

What does Orthoimagery do for You?

The following three types of Orthoimagery offer specific advantages in viewing, map-making, and modeling: High Resolution Orthoimagery, Digital Orthophoto Quadranges (DOQ), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP). View and download for free each type of Orthoimagery through the Orthoimagery Interactive Map Viewer or use The National Map Seamless Server linked to from the GISDATA Portal page.

High Resolution Orthoimagery

• Assess the Benefits
  High resolution orthoimagery is a critical tool for those involved in development decisions such as city planners, policy makers, resource managers, utility companies, real estate businesses, energy explorers, and surveyors.
  
  High Resolution Orthoimagery is also just plain fun: you can zoom in on your own backyard or tour a favorite destination.

• Visualize Future Growth
  Developers are able to clearly visualize how current landscapes connect. Policy makers can pinpoint where new development will impact immediate and surrounding areas and see where municipal structures, like fire stations, need to be added.

• Locate Evacuation Routes
  Emergency responders can determine the best evacuation routes, more quickly designate alternatives, and plan safe access to aid. High resolution orthoimagery may serve as a base layer for first responders to overlay other data such as roads, emergency shelters, and hospitals. For instance, because of the clarity of the images, emergency staff can accurately designate points of reference. They will have the ability to relate spatially where evacuation routes are in relation to hospitals and other aid centers.





• Know the Neighborhood
  Knowing exactly what is around the corner is critical to homeland security, and high resolution orthoimagery allows law enforcement to judge the best locations to place surveillance cameras in high-traffic urban areas and popular attractions. High resolution orthoimagery provides an accurate aerial view and spatial perspective of possible entry points into the country.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP)

NAIP acquires imagery during the agricultural peak growing seasons for the conterminous United States. These "leaf-on" orthophoto images are at 1-meter or 2-meter spatial resolutions. The 1-meter imagery provides updated digital orthophoto imagery. The 2-meter imagery supports the USDA Farm Services programs that require current imagery acquired during the agricultural growing season but do not require a higher resolution such as crop compliance, farm acreage, and Common Land Unit (CLU) boundaries.