Aerial photographs
Discovery interfaces to Air Photos of Colorado
The Library has a large collection (164,000+) of aerial photographs of Colorado (no other states are collected). Most were shot from the mid-1930s through the early 2000s for the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Soil Conservation Service, and Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Mines does have some unique photos, most noteworthy from the early 1930s of the Front Range area take by the Lowry Field Photographers School. Other than the Denver area and the National Forests of Colorado, the Library has very few recent aerial photos.
The Library has created 3 discovery interfaces for its air photo collection. Each interface covers different photos in the collection.
- National Forest Air Photos of Colorado. (103,000+ air photos indexed)
- Golden and Denver Air Photos
- U.S. Geological Survey Air Photos of Colorado (1944-1979)
Additional, paper indexes to the air photo sets are located in the green map cases in the Map Room. Some of the photographs have no indexes and some of the indexes have no photographs.
All of the air photos sets are listed in the Library's Catalog. To find aerial photographs of parts of Colorado, search for "[county] name" and "aerial photographs." The photos are located in blue, plastic boxes on the compact shelving units in the Map Collection. The photographs are filed by set. Most of the aerial photographs call numbers begin with "G4311.A4 svar .U5". While the aerial photographs may be checked out like books and maps, you must see the Map Librarian before you proceed to Circulation with the photos.
Other Colorado aerial photos:
- Index and scans of older air photos of Colorado by The University of Colorado at Boulder.
- Compare air photos of Colorado from the 1950's and today. Use the slider to easily compare and contrast. Only covers the northern half of the Front Range.
- Aerial Photographs of Colorado -- The University of Colorado at Boulder has scanned some older aerial photos of Colorado.
- Indexes to aerial photographs of Colorado -- Indexes scanned by the University of Colorado at Boulder.
While these sites are mostly known for their road map features, each also has current satellite images or aerial photographs:
- Bing Maps -- Features bird's-eye (oblique or side-view) aerial photographs.
- Google Maps -- Features street view photographs.
- Google Earth -- Includes historic aerial photos.
Some aerial photographs and satellite images are available on the web:
- Earth Explorer is a U.S. Geological Survey World Wide Web-based query system. Query and order satellite images, aerial photographs, and cartographic products through the U.S. Geological Survey.
- EROS Data Center --The US agency which collects and processes satellite images. EROS has a variety of data sets, and includes information on documentation, image browsing (depending upon the data set), and ordering services.
- Farm Service Agency, Aerial Photography Field Office -- Primary source of aerial imagery for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Over 10,000,000 images, dating from 1955 through the present.
- Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth -- Photos of the Earth taken by astronauts.
- Global Visualization Viewer (GloVis) by USGS -- accessing remote sensing data taken by a variety of satellites from 2001 to the present.
- Landsat -- The latest Landsat Project -- satellite image of the world.
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) Photo Library
- Wayback Imagery -- a digital archive of the World Imagery basemap, enabling users to access different versions of World Imagery captured over the years, dating back to February 2014.
- National Geodetic Survey Multi-lens Airphoto Collection -- hosted by the Colorado School of Mines, this is a collection of air photos taken of the United States coast lines (mostly East coast) using a multi-lens camera. The photos date from the 1930s to 1960s. This article explains about this program's activities in Florida: US Coast and Geodetic Survey Aerial Photos from 1927, 1928, 1932, 1935, 1952 and 1954 Covering South Florida by Peter Harlem
- Scanned air photos of California. Interface produced by California State University Fresno.
List of aerial photographs and satellite images links:
- Aerial photographs and satellite images links created by the Colorado State University.
- The Top 12 Most Useful Landsat Image Sites -- an article by the eminent GIS educator, Joseph Kerski..
Aerial photography explanations, tutorials & text:
- Remote Sensing Tutorials by Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation, Natural Resources Canada.
- Introduction to Aerial Photography Interpretation Powerpoint.
- Aerial Photography by Humboldt State Excellent technical explanation of aerial photography.
Tutorial
Air photo tutorial 2.0
Discover how to use air photos to find clues from the past to understand the present.
This FREE 30-minute tutorial will change the way you look at the world.
https://mines.libwizard.com/f/airphotos_2
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