Via a partnership between DigitalGlobe and Microsoft, a  "Wall-to-Wall" 30 cm or better complete coverage  aerial ortho mosaic is being acquired of the conterminous US and Western Europe (the program was previously referred to as "Clear 30" however Germany and select urban areas are being acquired at 15cm resolution).  Most areas are already available for purchase -- contact LAND INFO for a status graphic to see if your area of interest (AOI) is available. By employing a common sensor (UltraCamG) for all imagery collection, high quality is consistently maintained. Accuracy is an outstanding 4m CE 90 for standard tiles and 2.7m CE90 for high-value areas. All imagery is eye-pleasing, tonally balanced and cloud-free. In addition to the 30cm or better true/natural color imagery, 60 cm color infrared (CIR) is also available.  As an off-the-shelf product, pricing is significantly less than custom aerial flights and refresh plans will maintain the currency of this premium quality imagery. Additional information and specifications available via the DigitalGlobe Precision Aerial downloadable .pdf. For pricing details and sample imagery, please contact LAND INFO.

NAIP is aerial photography acquired by USDA contractors during agricultural growing seasons and is an effective option to cover large areas with relatively recent imagery (in 2010 thirty states were flown).  The imagery is traditionally 3-band natural color however in 2010 all states were flown as 4-band (select NAIP datasets earlier than 2010 are also 4-band where as a few were CIR only). Imagery is avaialble as CCMs (Compressed County Mosaics, 3-band -- 2010 and 2011 CCMs are all MrSID MG3 15:1) tonally balanced (not entirely seamlessly) / mosaicked by county or 3.75 minute GeoTiff QQs (Quarter Quads -- 3-band or 4-band depending on the source imagery). Except for some older 2m datasets, all NAIP imagery is 1m resolution (2011 pilot projects call for limited 0.5m resolution pilot project imagery.)  2010 and 2011 NAIP offers 6m CE 90 accuracy, older NAIP imagery accuracy specs called for ± 5m match to reference DOQQs (+/- 10m in the case of the 2m datasets).  Except for a small missing section of Southern Nevada, NAIP offers full coverage of the conterminous USA -- LAND INFO offers a "best of the NAIP" compilation available for immediate delivery on external hard drive.

USGS and NGA (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) contractors have been acquiring higher-res ortho aerials for major metropolitan areas, sometimes extending to larger regions such as counties, smaller states, coastal areas and border regions. The imagery is 2002 - 2010, typically natural color and 30cm (1 ft.) resolution but as high as 15cm (half foot) and as low as 1m. Unlike NAIP imagery the seasonality of the imagery varies. The main advantages of these datasets are higher resolution (level of detail), higher accuracy (often 3m RMSE) and tonal balancing / mosaic output by major metro area. Please contact LAND INFO for an up-to-date list of all available datasets.

DOQQs were the first US digital aerial photography products to be widely available on a national-level scale. Typically either 1m pan (gray-scale) or CIR (color infra-red) (some quads were re-flown and available as both pan and CIR), DOQQs cover almost all of the lower 48 states and most of Puerto Rico; only limited coverage is available of Alaska.

Each DOQQ covers an area of 3.75 minutes of latitude by 3.75 minutes of longitude (roughly four miles by four miles) and meets 1:12,000 NMAS (National Map Accuracy Standards, equivalent to 10m CE 90).

• GeoTiff
• Tiff World .tfw
• NITF
• ER Mapper .ecw

• LizardTech MrSID .sid
• JPG2000 .jp2
• Idrisi .rst
• ERDAS Imagine .img