What is National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP)? Things You Should Know. National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) main purpose is to collect the aerial imagery throughout the agricultural growing seasons in the whole continental U.S. The data of aerial imagery acquired by NAIP will be sent to U.S Department of Agriculture’s FSA (Farm Service Agency).
Within one year of acquisition, the digital ortho photography of agricultural growing seasons can be used by governmental institutions as well as the public. The process to gain aerial imagery during agricultural growing seasons is done by APFO (Aerial Photography Field Office) that is located in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The History of National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP)
The file of NAIP imagery products can be acquired as compressed county mosaics or CCM as well as digital ortho quarter quad tiles or DOQQS. CCMs files are generated from DOQQS image tiles that are compressed into one mosaic. The National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) was begun in 2003 with one cycle taking 5 years.
In 2009, the cycle was changed to a 3 – year cycle with 2008 became the year of transition to digital sensors. The usage of digital sensors is able to provide more horizontal accuracy to the NAIP imagery results.
After the year of 2007, the quality of default spectral resolution imagery used four bands of data including RGB (natural color) as well as near infrared color. Meanwhile, before 2007, the imagery products resolution was only red, green, blue or RGB.
The Usage of National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP)
There are at least three major benefits people can get by accessing National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) results. The results can be used both for public users and governmental institutions.
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Agriculture
The farm or agriculture programs from the federal government need the result of order to determine the flooded and draught areas during agricultural growing seasons. The National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) in aerial imagery is also used to classify the irrigation zones and land utilization. It also helps the institutions to determine the schedule for irrigation.
In order to make correct forest management decisions, federal government needs the aerial imagery. You can also use the aerial imagery to learn the soil science that suitable for certain agriculture products. https://pnia-pnd.org/national-agriculture-imagery-program-anything-need-know/
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Generic Purposes
The National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) results has been widely used in several purposes including hydrology. Wildlife predictions, environmental change discovery, public safety, and public health. Meanwhile, aerial images from NAIP is also very helpful for education purposes. Several scientific publications use NAIP as the primary data or justification for the research activities.
The aerial imagery result is also used for commercial purposes. The data is very important for land and real estate sales, infrastructure maintaining, the development of architecture application and 3D modelling.
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External Programs
Several external programs such as CLU or Common Land Unit needs the results of The National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) to determine the landscape. Besides, the Conservation Reserve Program also needs this result.
You can get DOQQS and CCMs by ordering them directly from APFO website. A GIS project also may have NAIP DOQQs data.
