This data set contains reduced-resolution QuickBird imagery and geospatial data for the entire Barrow QuickBird image area 156.15° W - 157.07° W, 71.15° N - 71.41° N) and the Barrow B4 Quadrangle (156.29° W - 156.89° W, 71.25° N - 71.40° N), for use in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing software. The original QuickBird data sets were acquired by DigitialGlobe from 1 to 2 August 2002, and consist of orthorectified satellite imagery. Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)-compliant metadata for all value-added data sets are provided in text, HTML, and XML formats.
Accessory layers include: 1:250,000- and 1:63,360-scale USGS Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) mosaic images (GeoTIFF format); 1:250,000- and 1:63,360-scale USGS quadrangle index maps (ESRI Shapefile format); an index map for the 62 QuickBird tiles (ESRI Shapefile format); and a simple polygon layer of the extent of the Barrow QuickBird image area and the Barrow B4 quadrangle area (ESRI Shapefile format).
The baseline geospatial data support education, outreach, and multi-disciplinary research of environmental change in Barrow, which is an area of focused scientific interest.
Data are available either via FTP or on CD-ROM.
Manley, W. F., L. R. Lestak, C. E. Tweedie, and J. A. Maslanik. 2006. Reduced-resolution QuickBird imagery and related GIS layers for Barrow, Alaska, USA. Boulder, CO: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Digital media and CD-ROM.
The following example shows how to cite the use of this data set in a publication. For more information, see our Use and Copyright Web page.
Please see the File List and the FGDC metadata for details about specific layers, including data sources, processing, data format, spatial and temporal resolution, extent, projection, and datum.
| Category | Description | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data format | Primary, derived, and accessory data layers are provided in different formats, including GeoTIFF, and ESRI Shapefiles. | |||
| Spatial coverage |
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| Temporal coverage | Data were acquired from 1 to 2 August 2002. | |||
| Tools for accessing data | These data are easily imported into ArcGIS and image processing software (ENVI, ERDAS IMAGINE, and others). | |||
| Grid type and size | Refer to the FGDC metadata (accessed from the File List) for details specific to each layer. | |||
| File naming convention | See File List | |||
| File size | See File List; the entire data set is approximately 373 MB. | |||
| Parameter(s) | Infrared imagery, visible imagery | |||
| Procedures for obtaining data | Data are available either via FTP download or on CD-ROM. |
1. Contacts and Acknowledgments
2. Detailed Data Description
3. Data Access and Tools
4. Data Acquisition and Processing
5. References and Related Publications
6. Document Information
William F. Manley
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR)
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO, USA
Leanne Lestak
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO, USA
Craig Tweedie
Department of Biology
University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)
El Paso, TX, USA
James Maslanik
Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR)
431 UCB
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO, USA
NSIDC User Services
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0449 USA
phone: +1 303.492.6199
fax: +1 303.492.2468
form: Contact NSIDC User Services
e-mail: nsidc@nsidc.org
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Polar Programs (OPP) grant OPP-0224071.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein. The information contained in these data is dynamic and may change over time. The data are not better than the original sources from which they were derived. It is the responsibility of the data user to use the data appropriately and consistently within the limitations of geospatial data in general and these data in particular. Any related graphics are intended to aid the data user in acquiring relevant data; it is not appropriate to use the related graphics as data. NSIDC gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of these data. These data and related graphics are not legal documents and are not intended to be used as such. This disclaimer applies both to individual use of the data and aggregate use with other data.
Read the DigitalGlobe Single Organization End User License Agreement.
This product set contains reduced-resolution QuickBird imagery and geospatial data for the Barrow, Alaska, USA region for use in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing software packages. The product set includes the original QuickBird imagery, as well as value-added mosaics, accessory GIS layers, and additional documentation. Together, the imagery and geospatial data support education, outreach, and multi-disciplinary research of environmental change in Barrow, which is an area of focused scientific interest.
The reduced-resolution imagery (at 10-m resolution) is available here for public use. Due to licensing restrictions, the full-resolution QuickBird imagery (at 0.7- and 2.8-m resolution) is limited to investigators with funding from the National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs, Arctic Sciences Section.
The original QuickBird data were acquired by DigitialGlobe from 1 to 2 August 2002, and consist of orthorectified satellite imagery. The satellite imagery depicts the first-reflective visual and near-infrared surfaces during acquisition, and is useful for visualization, mapping, georectification, and a variety of analyses.
Value-added mosaics were created to avoid redundant effort or confusion, and to produce a suite of complete and consistent data. The 62 original data tiles were first converted to mosaics at full resolution, then resampled to 10 m resolution for public distribution. The mosaics were created wtih a common projection (UTM Zone 4) in GeoTIFF format. A multispectral mosaic is available for the full extent of the "Barrow QuickBird area" (156.15° W - 157.07° W, 71.15° N - 71.41° N). Multispectral mosaics are available also for the two overlapping scenes (Image 1 and Image 2). Each of the mosaics is available in both 8 bit and 16 bit spectral resolutions.
Value-added processing also included the creation of accessory GIS layers: 1:250,000- and 1:63,360-scale USGS Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) mosaic images (GeoTIFF format); 1:250,000- and 1:63,360-scale USGS quadrangle index maps (ESRI Shapefile format); an index map for the original QuickBird tiles (ESRI Shapefile format); and simple polygon layers of the extent of Image 1, Image 2, and the Barrow QuickBird area (ESRI Shapefile format).
For a smaller area of particular interest near Barrow, each of the mosaics and accessory layers was clipped to a subsetted extent of the Barrow Quadrangle (156.29° W - 156.89° W, 71.25° N - 71.40° N). These files are smaller, and can be more easily handled in GIS and remote-sensing packages, for those researchers interested only in this area.
Finally, detailed documentation is provided. A quality assessment report is included, as are DigitalGlobe Help documents. FGDC-compliant metadata (in text, HTML, and XML formats) were created for all of the value-added mosaics and accessory layers. Please read the metadata and view the thumbnail images (accessed from the File List) for a variety of details specific to each layer or image.
This section describes the value-added image mosaics. An orthoimage is remotely-sensed image data in which displacement of features in the image caused by terrain relief and sensor orientation have been mathematically removed. Orthoimagery combines the image characteristics of a photograph with the geometric qualities of a map. A multispectral image may be well suited as a spectral analysis layer or as a display layer. Note: Use multispectral images P001 and P002 16-bit data for spectral analysis.
| Multispectral Mosaic, Image 1 (10 m, 8 bit and 16 bit) | |
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This 4-band orthoimage represents the first-reflective visual and near-infrared surfaces (450 - 900 nm) for the western portion of the Barrow QuickBird acquisition area. Data is available in both 8 bit and 16 bit. |
| Multispectral Mosaic, Image 2 (10 m, 8 bit and 16 bit) | |
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This 4-band orthoimage represents the first-reflective visual and near-infrared surfaces (450 - 900 nm) for the eastern portion of the Barrow QuickBird acquisition area. Data is available in both 8 bit and 16 bit. |
| Multispectral Mosaic, Full Extent (10 m, 8 bit and 16 bit) | |
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This 4-band orthoimage represents the first-reflective visual and near-infrared surfaces (450 - 900 nm) for the entire Barrow QuickBird acquisition area. Data is available in both 8 bit and 16 bit. This image is well suited as a display layer. |
| Multispectral Mosaic, Barrow Quadrangle (10 m, 8 bit and 16 bit) | |
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This 4-band orthoimage represents the first-reflective visual and near-infrared surfaces (450 - 900 nm) for the Barrow Quadrangle area. Data is available in both 8 bit and 16 bit. This image is well suited as a display layer. |
 1:250,000 Scale USGS Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) |
 Mosaicked 1:63,360 scale USGS DRG |
 1:63,360 scale USGS Quadrangle Boundaries |
 QuickBird Tile Boundaries, Image 1 |
 QuickBird Tile Boundaries, Image 2 |
The mosaics and accessory layers are provided in two standardized data formats, GeoTIFF, and ESRI Shapefiles. The layers vary in terms of grid cell resolution and dimensions. For example, the multispectral mosaic for image P002 for the Barrow QuickBird area is available in GeoTIFF format, has grid cell spacing of 10 m, and dimensions of 2,147 rows by 2,747 columns. Please see the FGDC metadata (accessed from the File List) for details specific to each layer.
Please see the File List for file names, file types, file sizes, and descriptions.
The spatial coverage of the entire Barrow QuickBird acquisition area is:
West: 157.070333° W
East: 156.148473° W
North: 71.405004° N
South: 71.147638° N
The spatial coverage of the Barrow Quadrangle area is:
West: 156.285758° W
East: 156.891234° W
North: 71.403168° N
South: 71.249662° N
The following map displays the spatial coverage of the entire Barrow QuickBird area and the Barrow Quadrangle area. Click the thumbnail for a larger image.
The map projection for this data set is Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone 4. Horizontal datum is the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83). Please see the FGDC metadata (accessed from the File List) for details specific to each layer.
The DigitalGlobe QuickBird system collected data from 1 to 2 August 2002.
Pixel values in the QuickBird mosaics are values that represent magnitude of first-reflective visual and near-infrared surface return.
Several potential sources of error exist in the QuickBird data, as well as other layers. For more information, refer to the FGDC metadata (accessed from the File List).
Quality checks were performed throughout all processing procedures. Z-profiles for multispectral tiles were viewed for various locations in the image. Vegetation, water features and human-made features were checked for correct radiometric values. Actual digital number (DN) values were checked for individual tiles and for corresponding areas in the mosaics. Pixel registration of pan and multispectral tiles were checked.
The Barrow orthoimagery location accuracy is defined as custom; the investigator team supplied the digital elevation model (DEM) and ground control points (GCPs). Imagery meets and usually exceeds QuickBird's specifications for 1:12,000 scale orthoimagery, which is defined as 10.2 meters CE90% and 6.2 meters root-mean-square error. Radiometric, sensor, and geometric corrections were applied to separate images by DigitalGlobe and images were mapped to a cartographic projection using a digital elevation model (DEM) to correct parallax error due to local topographic relief. Each image has a different location accuracy. See the PDF files "Barrow QuickBird Quality Assessment Report.pdf" (distributed with the data) for GCPs used to geocorrect imagery, correction errors, and other issues related to quality control.
Data are available via FTP download. To place an order for data on CD-ROM, please contact NSIDC User Services. High-resolution versions of the data are available to investigators funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Polar Programs (OPP) Arctic Sciences Section.
The entire data set is approximately 373 MB.
NSIDC does not provide any software to read these data, which are easily imported into ArcGIS and image processing software.
The original images were acquired by DigitalGlobe, Inc. Several Portable Document Format (PDF) files containing documentation from DigitalGlobe are distributed with this data set. The following table summarizes the documents that apply to the DigitalGlobe acquisition and processing of the data.
File Name |
Summary |
| QuickBird Imagery Products – Product Guide.pdf | Overview of QuickBird processing levels and product options; includes information on the QuickBird satellite specifications, and on ordering QuickBird data |
| QuickBird – Aerial Photography Comparison Report.pdf | Compares QuickBird imagery to imagery obtained through traditional airborne cameras and processed via traditional digital photogrammetric means; assesses quality of QuickBird imagery and categorizes its usefulness for certain studies. |
| QuickBird Imagery Products – FAQ.pdf | Answers to frequently asked, general questions about QuickBird products. |
The original DigitalGlobe QuickBird data was processed by a team of investigators to create this data set. This processing is described in the file "Barrow Quickbird Quality Assessment Report.pdf", which is distributed with the data set. This PDF file includes information about the images, the mosaic creating process, and quality control.
DigitalGlobe’s QuickBird satellite provides the largest swath width, largest on-board storage, and highest resolution of any currently available or planned commercial satellite. QuickBird is designed to efficiently and accurately image large areas with industry-leading geolocational accuracy. The QuickBird spacecraft is capable of acquiring over 75 million square kilometers of imagery data annually (over three times the size of North America), allowing DigitalGlobe to populate and update its archive at unprecedented speed. The following table summarizes some of the QuickBird satellite characteristics. For more information, visit the DigitalGlobe Web site.
Launch Date |
October 18, 2001 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Launch Vehicle |
Boeing Delta II | ||||||||||
Launch Location |
Vandenberg Air Force Base, California | ||||||||||
Orbit Altitude |
450 km | ||||||||||
Orbit Inclincation |
97.2 degree, sun-sychronous | ||||||||||
Speed |
7.1 km/second | ||||||||||
Equator Crossing Time |
10:30 a.m. (descending node) | ||||||||||
Orbit Time |
93.5 minutes | ||||||||||
Revisit Time |
1-3.5 days, depending on latitude (30° off-nadir) | ||||||||||
Swath Width |
16.5 km x 16.5 km at nadir | ||||||||||
Metric Accuracy |
23-meter horizontal (CE 90%) | ||||||||||
Digitization |
11 bits | ||||||||||
Resolution |
Pan: 61 cm (nadir) to 72 cm (25° off-nadir) MS: 2.44 m (nadir) to 2.88 m (25° off-nadir) |
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Image Bands |
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The QuickBird image for the Barrow region was originally delivered by DigitalGlobe as 2 images containing a total of 62 tiles, which were mosaicked in ENVI to create a single QuickBird image layer at full resolution and at full extent (Barrow "quickbird") in UTM Zone 4. The two images (the eastern and western portions) were collected on 1 and 2 August 2002. A non-radiometrically correct (color corrected) and panchromatic mosaic of both images at the reduced extent of the Barrow Quadrangle and at high resolution (0.7 and 2.8 m) is available for restricted release. These mosaics were then regridded to 10 m, to create a free, reduced-resolution version available to the general public.
For more information about the processing for this data set, see the Detailed Data Description.
Digital Globe product documents and papers
Barrow Area Information Database - Internet Map Server
The following acronyms are used in this document:
ARCSS: Arctic System Science
CD-ROM: Compact Disk-Read Only Memory
CIRES: Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
DEM: Digital Elevation Model
DN: Digital Number
DRG: Digital Raster Graphic
ENVI: Environment for Visualizing Images
ESRI: Environmental Systems Research Institute
FGDC: Federal Geographic Data Committee
FTP: File Transfer Protocol
GCP: Ground Control Point
GeoTIFF: Geographic (geographically referenced) Tagged Image File Format
GIS: Geographic Information Systems
HTML: HyperText Markup Language
INSTAAR: Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research
NAD: North American Datum
NSF: National Science Foundation
NSIDC: National Snow and Ice Data Center
OPP: Office of Polar Programs
PDF:Portable Document Format
URL: Uniform Resource Locator
USGS: United States Geological Survey
UTM: Universal Transverse Mercator
XML: Extensible Markup Language
November 2005
November 2005
http://nsidc.org/data/docs/arcss/arcss305/index.html
