USDA APFO Imagery (Dreaming of the NTTR)
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I’m a perpetual noob with GIS (Geographic Information System) software, kind of like how I’m a perpetual noob with Falcon BMS.
But I do have ArcGIS, which I use on the $100/yr license that allows me to do non-commercial work with it. (I use it for compiling geology data for a low-key research project.)
I have a long-term dream that BMS graphics will someday allow for high-resolution topography, with the ability to have high-res aerial photography draped on it. Maybe it’ll happen, maybe it won’t, it’s all good. BMS is awesome already. But in case it ever does happen, a source of reasonably hi-res imagery for large areas would be handy.
Here in the USA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture takes aerial photographs of almost all of the country every year or two, during the growing season.
I recently ran across this document, which shows how to link to a GIS server operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Aerial Photography Field Office (APFO). I started to have visions of easy downloads of lots of good-looking, orthorectified imagery, covering areas near and dear to my heart, like my beloved R-2508 complex, or maybe even the NTTR.
The imagery in question is called NAIP: National Aerial Imagery Program
I linked to that server in ArcMap, and started looking at R-2508. An overview of Star Wars Canyon looks pretty good:
I can hear our radio calls already: “500 feet, 500 knots”
Next, I zoomed in on the part of the canyon where we used to get the “ground-locked” pictures, back when Hornets and Vipers were flying there:
Pretty good. Not quite as sharp and hi-res as I would ideally like, but still pretty good. And I think this same imagery can be downloaded as DOQQs (Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangles) from the USDA or USGS and will look better. I’ve got some DOQQ imagery for parts of R-2508, and it’s tack-sharp, beautiful stuff. If the BMS graphics system could make use of it, and we had computers that were up to the task, we’d just about see the individual bushes and boulders flashing by our canopies. Ah, such a beautiful dream!
So, R-2508 is nicely covered. And best of all, the time of day and shadows match pretty nicely from one part of the area to another! It isn’t a patchwork quilt of different-looking images. Very nice.
Hey, how about the NTTR? Maybe some future version of BMS, if it had a whole new way of handling terrain and imagery, could put that other simulation’s NTTR to shame! (Hey, a guy can dream, right?)
So, I started zooming out in the NAIP imagery. If you know the geography of the southwestern USA, the mountain range called the Sierra Nevada is along the left edge of the picture, and the western part of the Grand Canyon is at the right edge of the picture:
Whoops! LOL, I should have known! :rofl:
I guess that really doesn’t come as a surprise. I suppose some lower-res satellite imagery would have to be used for the NTTR, maybe that’s what the other sim uses.
Still, the potential for a nice R-2508 is there, depending on what happens with BMS terrain and imagery someday. It’s a beautiful thing to dream about! At least the data are readily available for areas like this in the USA. Goodness only knows what one would have to do to get decent imagery of the DPRK. Maybe a zillion screenshots from Google Earth, or something like that, and a lot of georeferencing in ArcMap.
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…since the loss of that Super Hornet a bit ago you’re not allowed to fly through Star Wars Canyon below 1500 AGL now.
But I suppose we can go ahead and bust that in a sim…I know I do.
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There is software like SasPlanet that uses those images servers to capture a coloection or photocompose an area.
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There is software like SasPlanet that uses those images servers to capture a collection or photocompose an area.
SasPlanet is good just it is really hard (perhaps impossible) to add new servers to what is already there. But if you know how - please share.
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@tad:
SasPlanet is good just it is really hard (perhaps impossible) to add new servers to what is already there. But if you know how - please share.
All I have found is :
https://www.cartografiadigital.es/2014/04/sasplanet-crear-fuentes-wms.html?m=1
In spanish, but maybe Google translator is good enough to make It understandable.
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Thank you, cool :clap2:
Lots of additional good tips in the discussion section. -
One can obtain pretty good satellite imagery from several sources and SASPlanet is an ideal tool for that. At the flip one can change the source and comparison of the quality is pretty much instantaneous.
One of the biggest obstacles however is mainly patchwork of imagery from different satellite passes in different light conditions and even different seasons and yet combined and presented on the given server side by side. Another major problem often encountered is high cloud coverage, which in some instances can be really pretty much disqualifying. All this can be overcome by patching bad areas from other sources, but this is a very time and work consuming task.
All depends very much on the area of the world.
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Good morning, Gentlemen.
Thanks a lot, Mylonite, for having put this one out.
And since I’m fond of all that area and Nevada state (still missing a serious Nevada theater actually), I’m looking forward the progress - always ready to add my contribute based on that little I can help with.
With best regards.
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@tad:
One can obtain pretty good satellite imagery from several sources and SASPlanet is an ideal tool for that. At the flip one can change the source and comparison of the quality is pretty much instantaneous.
One of the biggest obstacles however is mainly patchwork of imagery from different satellite passes in different light conditions and even different seasons and yet combined and presented on the given server side by side. Another major problem often encountered is high cloud coverage, which in some instances can be really pretty much disqualifying. All this can be overcome by patching bad areas from other sources, but this is a very time and work consuming task.
All depends very much on the area of the world.
Absolutely true. Photorealistic does no mean get the image and you are done.
I have had my share of removing planes from taxiways and parking areas in airbases… Not to mention remarking poorly visible taxi lines.[emoji28]
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