2020 West Virginia NAIP 4-Band 8 Bit Imagery

This data set contains imagery from the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP). The NAIP program is administered by USDA FSA and has been established to support two main FSA strategic goals centered on agricultural production. These are, increase stewardship of America's natural resources while enhancing the environment, and to ensure commodities are procured and distributed effectively and efficiently to increase food security. The NAIP program supports these goals by acquiring and providing ortho imagery that has been collected during the agricultural growing season in the U.S. The NAIP ortho imagery is tailored to meet FSA requirements and is a fundamental tool used to support FSA farm and conservation programs. Ortho imagery provides an effective, intuitive means of communication about farm program administration between FSA and stakeholders. New technology and innovation is identified by fostering and maintaining a relationship with vendors and government partners, and by keeping pace with the broader geospatial community. As a result of these efforts the NAIP program provides three main products: DOQQ tiles, Compressed County Mosaics (CCM), and Seamline shape files. The Contract specifications for NAIP imagery have changed over time reflecting agency requirements and improving technologies. These changes include image resolution, horizontal accuracy, coverage area, and number of bands. In general, flying seasons are established by FSA and are targeted for peak crop growing conditions. The NAIP acquisition cycle is based on a minimum 3 year refresh of base ortho imagery. The tiling format of the NAIP imagery is based on a 3.75' x 3.75' quarter quadrangle with a 300 pixel buffer on all four sides. NAIP quarter quads are formatted to the UTM coordinate system using the North American Datum of 1983. NAIP imagery may contain as much as 10% cloud cover per tile.

NAIP imagery is available for distribution within 60 days of the end of a flying season and is intended to provide current information of agricultural conditions in support of USDA farm programs. For USDA Farm Service Agency, the 60 centimeter GSD product provides an ortho image base for Common Land Unit boundaries and other data sets. The NAIP imagery is generally acquired in projects covering full states in cooperation with state government and other federal agencies that use the imagery for a variety of purposes including land use planning and natural resource assessment. The NAIP is also used for disaster response. While suitable for a variety of uses, prior to 2007 the 2 meter GSD NAIP imagery was primarily intended to assess "crop condition and compliance" to USDA farm program conditions. The 2 meter imagery was generally acquired only for agricultural areas within state projects.

NAIP horizontal accuracy specifications have evolved over the life of the program. From 2003 to 2004 the specifications were as follows: 1-meter GSD imagery was to match within 3-meters, and 2-meter GSD to match within 10 meters of reference imagery. For 2005 the 1-meter GSD specification was changed to 5 meters matching the reference imagery. In 2006 a pilot project was performed using true ground specifications rather than reference imagery. All states used the same specifications as 2005 except Utah, which required a match of +/- 6 meters to true ground. In 2007 all specifications were the same as 2006 except Arizona used true ground specifications and all other states used reference imagery. In 2008 and subsequent years no 2-meter GSD imagery was acquired and all specifications were the same as 2007 except approximately half of the states acquired used true ground specifications and the other half used reference imagery. The 2008 states that used absolute ground control were; Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia. Beginning in 2009, all NAIP imagery acquisitions used the +/- 6 meters to ground and in 2016 the specification was changed to +/- 4 meters to true ground.

32-bit pixels, 4 band color(RGBIR) values 0 - 255

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Users must assume responsibility to determine the appropriate use of these data. DATA SHOULD NOT BE USED FOR LEGALLY BINDING APPLICATIONS.

Data is available for online custom download.

There are no limitations for access.

None. The USDA-FSA Aerial Photography Field office asks to be credited in derived products.

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NAIP horizontal accuracy specifications have evolved over the life of the program. From 2003 to 2004 the specifications were as follows: 1-meter GSD imagery was to match within 3-meters, and 2-meter GSD to match within 10 meters of reference imagery. For 2005 the 1-meter GSD specification was changed to 5 meters matching the reference imagery. In 2006 a pilot project was performed using true ground specifications rather than reference imagery. All states used the same specifications as 2005 except Utah, which required a match of +/- 6 meters to true ground. In 2007 all specifications were the same as 2006 except Arizona used true ground specifications and all other states used reference imagery. In 2008 and subsequent years no 2-meter GSD imagery was acquired and all specifications were the same as 2007 except approximately half of the states acquired used true ground specifications and the other half used reference imagery. The 2008 states that used absolute ground control were; Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia. Beginning in 2009, all NAIP imagery acquisitions used the +/- 6 meters to ground and in 2016 the specification was changed to +/- 4 meters to true ground.

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NAIP 3.75 minute tile file names are based

on the USGS quadrangle naming convention.