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

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).

[
  "010:12"
]

[
  "geospatial"
]