USDA aerial maps transitioning to new URLs

As part of The National Map transition to cloud hosting, several of the National Map Orthoimagery Services will be provided under new URLs by early December.

One major change involves links to USDA National Aerial Imagery Program (NAIP) orthoimagery. These new URLs have been available and running in parallel for many months and most applications have already made the change to the new replacement services.

In addition, as part of this transition, USGS legacy Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) or Scanned Map service will also be retired.

Orthimage of Glenn Canyon Dam, Arizona, taken Oct. 31, 2016. (USGS)

The National Map uses NAIP imagery as a key component of its US Topo map products. As part of this service, it also provides imagery compressed files for download and imagery web map services for visualization in applications. These imagery services and data download provide an imagery base that supplements the associated US Topo GIS-based product: the Topo Map Vector Data Product.

The imagery web map services or imagery downloaded from TNM Downloader may both be used along with TNM vector products in the Topo TNM Style Template, providing GIS basemap layers and data in the cartographic style and layout of the US Topo maps.

These dynamic imagery services are designed to provide visualization from local to national scales for a variety of use cases. The replacement “Imagery – 1 meter (plus)” service will contain NAIP orthoimagery along with other High Resolution Orthoimagery (HRO) to fill in areas where NAIP is not flown.

Some of the services are scale-dependent, drawing only at the largest scales (below 18K scale), to facilitate zooming in past the levels currently supported in the faster USGS tile cached Imagery Basemap service. These capabilities are being maintained through the new URLs listed on the transition page.