This child item contains the raw videos captured by small Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (sUAS) at each field site. It also includes a summary file with metadata for each video.
Each Field Site is abbreviated in various files in this data release. File and folder names quickly identify which site a particular file or dataset represents. The following abbreviations are used:

• ACS: Anthracite Creek at Somerset, Colorado, USA
• BRA: Blue River below Dillon, Colorado, USA (collected in August 2023)
• BRJ: Blue River below Dillon, Colorado, USA (collected in June 2023)
• CRG: Colorado River below Glenwood Springs, Colorado, USA
• CRR: Colorado River above Roaring Fork River at Glenwood Springs, Colorado, USA
• ERW: Eagle River below Milk Creek near Wolcott, Colorado, USA
• MCA: Maroon Creek near Aspen, Colorado, USA
• RFG: Roaring Fork at Glenwood Springs, Colorado, USA

This data release provides remotely sensed data, field measurements, and MATLAB code associated with an effort to produce image-derived velocity maps for a reach of the Sacramento River in California's Central Valley. Data collection occurred from September 16-19, 2024, and involved cooperators from the Intelligent Robotics Group from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Southwest Fisheries Science Center. The remotely sensed data were obtained from an Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) and are stored in Robot Operating System (ROS) *.bag files. Within these files, the various data types are organized into ROS topics including: images from a thermal camera, measurements of the distance from the UAS down to the water surface made with a laser range finder, and position and orientation data recorded by a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) during the UAS flights. This instrument suite is part of an experimental payload called the River Observing System (RiOS) designed for measuring streamflow and further detail is provided in the metadata file associated with this data release. For the September 2024 test flights, the RiOS payload was deployed from a DJI Matrice M600 Pro hexacopter hovering approximately 270 m above the river. At this altitude, the thermal images have a pixel size of approximately 0.38 m but are not geo-referenced. Two types of ROS *.bag files are provided in separate zip folders. The first, Baguettes.zip, contains "baguettes" that include 15-second subsets of data with a reduced sampling rate for the GNSS and IMU. The second, FullBags.zip, contains the full set of ROS topics recorded by RiOS but have been subset to include only the time ranges during which the UAS was hovering in place over one of 11 cross sections along the reach. The start times are included in the *.bag file names as portable operating system interface (posix) time stamps. To view the data within ROS *.bag files, the Foxglove Studio program linked below is freely available and provides a convenient interface. Note that to view the thermal images, the contrast will need to be adjusted to minimum and maximum values around 12,000 to 15,000, though some further refinement of these values might be necessary to enhance the display. To enable geo-referencing of the thermal images in a post-processing mode, another M600 hexacopter equipped with a standard visible camera was deployed along the river to acquire images from which an orthophoto was produced: 20240916_SacramentoRiver_Ortho_5cm.tif. This orthophoto has a spatial resolution of 0.05 m and is in the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate system, Zone 10. To assess the accuracy of the orthophoto, 21 circular aluminum ground control targets visible in both thermal and RGB (red, green, blue) images were placed in the field and their locations surveyed with a Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) GNSS receiver. The coordinates of these control points are provided in the file SacGCPs20240916.csv. Please see the metadata for additional information on the camera, the orthophoto production process, and the RTK GNSS survey. The thermal images were used as input to Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) algorithms to infer surface flow velocities throughout the reach. To assess the accuracy of the resulting image-derived velocity estimates, field measurements of flow velocity were obtained using a SonTek M9 acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). These data were acquired along a series of 11 cross sections oriented perpendicular to the primary downstream flow direction and spaced approximately 150 m apart. At each cross section, the boat from which the ADCP was deployed made four passes across the channel and the resulting data was then aggregated into mean cross sections using the Velocity Mapping Toolbox (VMT) referenced below (Parsons et al., 2013).

SOLVE1_AircraftRemoteSensing_DC8_LASE_Data is the remotely sensed trace gas data for the DC-8 aircraft collected during the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) by the Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment (LASE) instrument. Data collection for this product is complete.The SOLVE campaign was a NASA multi-program effort of the Upper Atmosphere Research Program (UARP), Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Project (AEAP), Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling and Analysis Program (ACMAP) and Earth Observing System (EOS) of NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise (ESE). SOLVE’s primary objective was for calibrating and validating the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III satellite measurements, while examining the processes that controlled ozone levels at a mid- to high-latitude range. The major goal of SAGE III was to quantitatively assess ozone loss at high latitudes. SOLVE was a two-phase experiment, the first phase, SOLVE, occurred during the fall of 1999 through the spring of 2000. The second phase, SOLVE II, occurred during the winter of 2003.SOLVE took place in the Arctic high-latitude region during the winter. The polar ozone depletion processes cause by human-produced chlorine and bromine are most active in mid-to-late winter and early spring in the high Arctic. In order to conduct this validation experiment, NASA deployed the NASA ER-2 aircraft and NASA DC-8 aircraft. The ER-2 measured a variety of atmospheric data, including ozone (O3), H2O, CO2, ClONO2, HCl, ClO/BrO, and Cl2O2. The DC-8 aircraft measured ozone, ClO/BrO, and aerosol, among other atmospheric data. SOLVE also utilized balloon platforms, ground-based instruments, and collaborations with the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) FALCON aircraft equipped with the OLEX Lidar to achieve the mission objectives. Overall, the campaign had 28 flights, with SOLVE featuring 17 total flights among the different aircrafts and SOLVE II featuring 11 flights.

These digital images were taken over an area of the Potomac River in Shepherdstown, West Virginia using 3DR Solo unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) on October 21, 2019. These images were collected for the purpose of evaluating UAS assessment of river habitat data such as water depth, substrate type, and water clarity. Each UAS was equipped with a FLIR Vue Pro R 640 13mm radiometric thermal camera that provides temperature data embedded in every pixel. Some photographs contain black and white targets used as ground control points (GCPs), which were surveyed by a field crew with a high-precision (GNSS) Global Navigation Satellite System and/or containing internal post processing kinematic (PPK) GPS system. This data release includes the original images from FLIR Vue Pro R 640 13mm radiometric thermal camera of the Potomac River in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

A reach of the Sacramento River near Glenn, California, was selected as a field site to test a sensor payload developed by the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for estimating surface flow velocities in rivers. The payload, called the River Observing System (RiOS), can be deployed from an uncrewed aircraft system (UAS). RiOS includes visible and thermal cameras, a laser range finder, an inertial navigation system, an embedded computer for storing and processing data, and a wireless link for transmitting data to a ground station. This data release includes thermal imagery acquired by RiOS and stored in Robot Operating System (ROS) *.bag files. The bag files are organized into two separate zip archives, one for each date of data collection. Foxglove Studio, an open-source data visualization tool, can be used to view the thermal images contained within the bag files (see link in Related External Sources). Once the thermal bag file is loaded in Foxglove Studio, open the settings and set the color mode to gradient and the minimum and maximum values to 12,000 and 15,000, respectively (see Foxglove.jpg in Attached files). The minimum and maximum values can be adjusted from these default values to enhance image contrast. The thermal images were used as input to an image velocimetry algorithm to estimate the surface flow velocities along the river. To assess the accuracy of these image-derived velocity estimates, field measurements of flow velocity were obtained using a SonTek M9 acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) using the RiverSurveyor Live software package. ADCP measurements were collected along multiple pre-planned cross section lines oriented perpendicular to the primary downstream flow direction. At each transect, multiple ADCP passes were made and the data was then processed using the Velocity Mapping Toolbox (VMT) to produce mean cross sections (Parsons et al., 2013). The output from VMT consisted of a single comma delimited text file with the following seven column headers: 1) xs: the river transect stationing in meters; 2) x_meters: easting (x) spatial coordinate in meters; 3) y_meters: northing (y) spatial coordinate in meters; 4) depth_meters: depth in meters; 5) vmag_meters_per_second: the depth-averaged velocity magnitude in meters per second; 6) u_meters_per_second: east (u) component of the depth-averaged velocity vector in meters per second; and 7) v_meters_per_second: northing (v) component of the depth-averaged velocity vector in meters per second. The spatial coordinates are projected in Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone 10, World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS-84) datum.

This dataset contains survey data including wading and real-time kinematic (RTK) Global Positioning System (GPS) of water surface elevation and channel bed topography at cross section 5 (xs5) on March 20, 2018, which is adjacent to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamgage at Arkansas River at Parkdale, Colorado (USGS 07094500). The RTK Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) surveys were performed using a local base station associated with the streamgage and Trimble R8 and R10 receivers while wading the channel at cross section 5. The survey data were postprocessed by performing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Online Positioning User Service (OPUS) correction of the static observations collected by the base and adjusting all the survey points accordingly. The survey data were exported to comma separated text (.csv) files, and the resulting file contains a survey point identification, spatial coordinates, elevations in meters above North American Vertical Datum of 1988, and a descriptive code for each point number. The data release also provides a channel cross-sectional area for each river stage in 0.01-meter increments derived from the survey data.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has the statutory mandate to collect hydrographic data in support of nautical chart compilation for safe navigation and to provide background data for engineers, scientific, and other commercial and industrial activities. Hydrographic survey data primarily consist of water depths, but may also include features (e.g. rocks, wrecks), navigation aids, shoreline identification, and bottom type information. NOAA is responsible for archiving and distributing the source data as described in this metadata record.