UCB Libraries

Map Library

General Coverage | United States | International | Vendors | Tutorials

More info: Guide to Aerial Photography & Satellite Imagery from the Government Publications Library. Also see our Online GIS Resources web page for other links to digital aerial photoraphy and satellite imagery.

For more links see our Aerial and Satellite bookmarks on Delicious

Collections at CU Boulder:

• Historical Aerial Photos of Colorado: Viewing the Changing Landscape of Colorado
  from the CU Boulder Jerry Crail Johnson Earth Sciences & Map Library.
• Glacier Photograph Collection
  from the National Snow and Ice Data Center / World Data Center for Glaciology.
• Niwot Ridge and Green Lakes Valley high resolution orthoimagery and DEMs

Indexes

• US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region, GIS Data Library
  This site includes indexes to Forest Service aerial photographs as .kmz files, which are viewable in Google Earth. Some of these photographs are available in the map library: contact the map library staff for more information.

• Digital Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Moon
  Search by feature name, coordinate range, lat/long, or photo number.
• EarthExplorer
  Search for satellite images, aerial photographs, and cartographic products produced by USGS.
• Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center
  The USGS's EROS Data Center archives more than 8 million aerial photographs and handles data from several series of satellites. Use this site for a great overview of USGS data & links to data download and ordering sites.
• Fairchild Aerial Photography Collection at Whittier College. Strong coverage of California. Includes coverage of many states, plus international areas.
• GeoCover: Landsat 4/5 and 7 Downloads in MrSID format.
• Global Land Cover Facility Data and Products
  ASTER, IKONOS, Landsat, MODIS, QuickBird, OrbView, and SRTM data available for download. Please note Intellectual Property Rights and Source notes/restrictions for each dataset.
• Great Images in NASA
  A collection of over a thousand images of significant historical interest scanned at high-resolution in several sizes.
• Historic Aerials
  Free online viewing with option to purchase imagery from 1930-present for various areas of the U.S.
  
• National Archives & Records Administration (NARA)
  NARA stores historical aerial photographs taken by federal agencies. In most cases, copies can be ordered.
• NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service)
  Many NRCS state offices have historical aerial photograph collections. Click on "States and Regions" in the lower left.
• Landsat 7 images by state. From EROS.
• MSRmaps (formerly Terraserver-USA)
  A free, searchable database of USGS aerial photos (digital orthophotquads) and digital topographic maps (Digital Raster Graphics).
• NASA's Planetary Photojournal
  Search and view images of individual planets in our solar system.
• Orthoimagery Resources: Sources of Free Orthoimagery
  From NASA's World Wind wiki.
• Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar
  SIR-C/X-SAR is a joint U.S.-German-Italian project that uses a highly sophisticated imaging radar to capture images of Earth.
• USDA Aerial Photography Field Office
  The primary source of aerial imagery for the United States Department of Agriculture. Over 10,000,000 images from 1955 to the present.
• USDA National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP)
  Ordering information. Some states are serving out coverage of their photography for free. We'll add to the list as we find them. Also available for download from the map library's GIS computer: see library catalog record.
• USGS Earthshots
  The EROS Data Center of the U.S. Geological Survey offers before and after Landsat images showing environmental change.
• USGS Fact Sheet: "Looking for an Old Aerial Photograph"
  Tips on searching for historical aerial photography.
• USGS Aerial Photographs and Satellite Images
  Links to and information about numerous collections of remote sensing imagery.
  
• USGS Seamless Data Distribution System
  Download orthoimagery, satellite data, DEMs, and more.
• USGS Global Visualization Viewer
  View and order Landsat, ASTER, MODIS, and other satellite image data.

• Alabama: Air Photo Archive. From the Alabama Maps collection at the University of Alabama.
• Arizona:
  ASU Libraries' Map Collection
  Over 20,000 contemporary and historical aerial photos related to Arizona.
  Arizona Regional Image Archive
  Aerial photography and satellite imagery of Arizona.
• California:
  California Coastal Records Project
  Over 34,557 photographs of the current California coast from the Oregon Border to the Mexican Border, except for the Vandenberg AFB restricted area. An additional 5833 images from 1972, 8000 images from 1979, 4173 images from 1987, and 1074 images from 1989 are now online.
  Links to guides & collections of California aerial photography
  from the Humbolt State University Library Atlas and Map Collection
  List of institutions with aerial photographs of California, by county
  University of California, Berkeley Earth Sciences and Map Library Aerial Photography Collection
  Online catalog of aerial photo collection covering various areas in California. Some digital photos available.
  
• Colorado: Historical Aerial Photographs of Colorado: Online access to over 1,700 digitized aerial photographs taken from 1937-1946.
  Colorado compressed county mosaics: generously served out by the USGS.
  - The compression ratio is 15:1.
  - The imagery is natural color, one meter GSD to NAIP specs.
  - The files are less than 4GB
  - The zip files are named by county
  - These can take a while to download. Also available for use or download on the Map Library's GIS computer.
• Georgia: Aerial Photographs From the Digital Library of Georgia and GALILEO.
• Idaho: Idaho Historical Aerial Photographs from the University of Idaho Library Digital Collections. "A collection of both oblique and vertical historic air photos ranging from 1927 to the 1980s."
• Illinois: Illinois Historical Aerial Photography 1938-1941. Online access to historical photographs available from the Illinois Natural Resources Geospatial Data Clearinghouse.
• Louisiana:
  Hurricane Katrina imagery:
  GIS Resources for Hurricane Katrina
  LAGIC: Louisiana Geographic Information Center
  NOAA imagery
  Google Maps Imagery
• New Mexico:
  Earth Data Analysis Center at the University of New Mexico
  Historical aerial photography of New Mexico from 1935 on.
• Pennsylvania:
  PennPilot
  Historical aerial photography of Pennsylvania from 1937-1942.
• Wisconsin:
  WisconsinView
  1-foot resolution aerial orthophotography of Madison (2007) , Kenosha
  (2005), and Racine (2005), Wisconsin available for download.

• Canada:
  University of Calgary Library: Airphoto Collection
  This collection is limited to Canadian airphotos and focuses on Southern Alberta particularly strong coverage of the Calgary area and the Kananaskis area. The site explains how to find photos in their collection--if you venture outside the US.
  GeoGratis
  Satellite imagery of Canada, available for download at no charge.
• Australia:
  National Archives of Australia
  These National Archives contain more than documents - they are have photographs, posters, maps, and architectural drawings for Australia. Also, check out the genealogist services.
• Western Europe:
  The Aerial Reconnaissance Archives
  A collection of over five million World War II aerial reconnaissance photographs of Western Europe that have been deposited by The UK Ministry of Defence.
• France:
  SIRIUS (SPOT imagery)
  A catalog of more than 4 million images taken by the French SPOT satellites (catalog and site in French).
  
• Spain:
  Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales de España (IDEE).
  Maps and data portal for Spain.
• Antarctica:
  Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA)
  "The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), created LIMA from more than 1,000 Landsat ETM+ scenes."

• Search for an aerial photographer in your area
  From the Professional Aerial Photographers’ Association International (PAPA)
• Aerial Archives
• AeroGRID
  Aerial photography of Europe
• Colorado Aerial Photo Service
  Historic and current black-and-white aerial photo maps of Denver and many other Colorado towns and cities from 1948 to the present.
• GeoEye
  "GeoEye imagery products serve the growing national and international demand for highly-detailed imagery in applications such as mapping, national security, environmental monitoring, urban planning, resource management, homeland defense, commercial fishing and emergency preparedness." (OrbImage and Space Imaging are now GeoEye.)
• National Aerial Resources
  Current and historical aerial photography of the United States.
• Spaceshots (Satellite Photos)
  Spaceshots sells poster-sized, high-quality satellite images and panoramic aerial views of cities. Most of the images come from Landsat 4 and 5 satellites represented by EOSAT (Earth Observation Satellite Company), while other images come from foreign satellites like the French SPOT satellite.
• Terra Image USA
  SPOT satellite imagery vendor.
• Tobin International
  Current and historical aerial photography.

• Aerial Photography and Remote Sensing
  The Geographer's Craft
• Geomophology from Space
  "The core of this book is a gallery of space imagery consisting of 237 plates, each treating a geographic region where a particular landform theme is exemplified. Commentary, photographs, locator maps, and sometimes a geologic map accompany each plate."
• Canada Centre for Remote Sensing tutorials
  Good tutorials, including the Fundamentals of Remote Sensing, Radar Remote Sensing, an Image Interpretation Quiz, and more.
• Remote Sensing Core Curriculum
  A tutorial from the International Center for Remote Sensing Education, Inc.(ICRSEdu).
• The Remote Sensing Tutorial
  by Dr. Nicholas Short, NASA
• USGS Fact Sheet: Looking for an Old Aerial Photograph