The flying season for the 2008 Wisconsin National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) is complete, and the free imagery for Wisconsin is now appearing on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Geospatial Data Gateway.
Flown during the summer of 2008, NAIP imagery is true color with a spatial resolution of 1-meter, initially delivered in county-based tiles in MrSID format. After a quality assurance process is complete, DOQQ-based tiles in GeoTIFF format will be produced in 2009. The imagery is projected to the predominant UTM zone, and once delivery is complete, will cover the entire state.
In addition to the Data Gateway, approximately two-thirds of the imagery has been delivered to the USDA Farm Service Agency office in Madison. Later this year, it will be made available as a free download from the WisconsinView.org site.
A digital sensor was used in 2008, resulting in a infrared band being collected in conjunction with the true color bands. A color IR product was not part of USDA’s deliverable, but interested organizations can contact the contractor for purchase information.
NAIP imagery has been acquired in Wisconsin in 2004 (2-meter resolution, partial state coverage), 2005 (1-meter, full state), 2006 (2-meter, full state). NAIP is the USDA’s primary verification tool for their crop compliance program, but it is also widely used by many state and local agencies.
Funding for the 2008 flight came from USDA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Forest Service, and several counties including Jackson, St. Croix, Sauk, Dodge, and Portage.
The next Wisconsin NAIP flight is currently scheduled for the summer of 2011.
Source: USDA Farm Service Agency