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U.S. Department of the Interior

The National Park Service (NPS) has a substantial investment in and a long history of using aerial and spaceborne remote sensing and global positioning system (GPS) technologies. The NPS Inventory & Monitoring Program conducts baseline inventories for more than 270 parks across the Nation. Remote sensing data are a critical source of information regarding geology, soils, vegetation, and infrastructure. Aerial photography and satellite imagery have been utilized to compile vegetation maps; a monumental task given the agency has responsibility for over 30 million acres. These data are particularly critical for NPS activities in Alaska, because of its remote and vast expanses of public land and the fact that the Arctic is warming rapidly in response to climate change. The NPS takes advantage of the open and freely available Landsat archive to quantify decadal changes in glacier ice cover and document land cover change in national park units. The NPS has been the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) sponsoring agency to map all large wildland and prescribed fires as part of the DOI Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity project, using the Landsat archive. GPS supports field data collection, navigation, and search and rescue operations conducted by the agency.

Bureau Full Name

National Park Service

Bureau Logo

Bureau Website Link

National Park Service

2012 DOI Remote Sensing Activities

Remotely sensed data, information, and resources contribute significantly to mission-critical work across the Department of the Interior (DOI). Spanning data sources from aerial photography, to moderate resolution satellite data, to highly specialized imaging sensors and platforms, DOI personnel use remote sensing capabilities to evaluate and monitor land-surface conditions over the vast areas for which DOI has responsibility. This report from the DOI Remote Sensing Working Group (DOIRSWG) provides a sampling of the many applications of remote sensing across the DOI.*

Bureau submissions for

Bureau of Indian Affairs

Bureau of Land Management

Bureau of Reclamation

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

National Park Service

Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement

U.S. Geological Survey

2013 DOI Remote Sensing Activities

Remotely sensed data and derived information contribute significantly to mission-critical work across the Department of the Interior (DOI). This report from the DOI Remote Sensing Working Group (DOIRSWG) highlights a sample of DOI remote sensing applications and illustrates the many types of technology, platforms, and specialized sensors employed.* DOI personnel use remote sensing technology to evaluate and monitor changing land-surface and natural resource conditions over the vast areas for which DOI has responsibility.

Bureau submissions for

Bureau of Indian Affairs

Bureau of Land Management

Bureau of Reclamation

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

National Park Service

Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement

U.S. Geological Survey

2014 DOI Remote Sensing Activities

Remotely sensed data and derived information contribute significantly to mission-critical work across the Department of the Interior (DOI). This report from the DOI Remote Sensing Working Group (DOIRSWG) highlights a sample of DOI remote sensing applications and illustrates the many types of technology, platforms, and specialized sensors employed.* DOI personnel use remote sensing technology to evaluate and monitor changing land-surface and natural resource conditions over the vast areas for which DOI has responsibility.

Bureau submissions for

Bureau of Indian Affairs

Bureau of Land Management

Bureau of Reclamation

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

National Park Service

Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement

U.S. Geological Survey

2015 DOI Remote Sensing Activities

Remotely sensed data and derived information contribute significantly to mission-critical work across the Department of the Interior (DOI). This report from the DOI Remote Sensing Working Group (DOIRSWG) highlights a sample of DOI remote sensing applications and illustrates the many types of technology, platforms, and specialized sensors employed.* DOI personnel use remote sensing technology to evaluate and monitor changing land-surface and natural resource conditions over the vast areas for which DOI has responsibility.

Bureau submissions for

Bureau of Indian Affairs

Bureau of Land Management

Bureau of Reclamation

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

National Park Service

Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement

U.S. Geological Survey

2016 DOI Remote Sensing Activities

Remotely sensed data and derived information contribute significantly to mission-critical work across the Department of the Interior (DOI). This report from the DOI Remote Sensing Working Group (DOIRSWG) highlights a sample of DOI remote sensing applications and illustrates the many types of technology, platforms, and specialized sensors employed.* DOI personnel use remote sensing technology to evaluate and monitor changing land-surface and natural resource conditions over the vast areas for which DOI has responsibility.

Bureau submissions for

Bureau of Indian Affairs

Bureau of Land Management

Bureau of Reclamation

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

National Park Service

U.S. Geological Survey

Detecting Snow Wetness and Icing

Snow wetness and icing can affect ecosystem processes at multiple spatial and temporal scales including hydrology, carbon cycling, wildlife movement, and human transportation. Snow wetness occurs when the cold content of part or all of the snowpack is less than the positive energy fluxes from radiative, sensible, or latent heat transfer. Icing events normally occur daily in the spring and summer and less predictably following wintertime rain on snow or warm weather.

Read more about Detecting Snow Wetness and Icing

Forest Structure Patterns across Crater Lake National Park from Lidar Data

In 2010, a team of researchers at the University of Washington worked with the NPS to analyze the canopy structure across Crater Lake National Park using lidar data. The data were used to identify individual trees and the results were classified into openings (no canopy cover greater than 2 m) and clumps of trees in the height ranges of 2–8, 8–16, 16–32, and greater than 32 m. These strata were further used to identify and map canopy structural classes across the park, and the distribution of these classes compared with patterns of climate and topography.

Read more about Forest Structure Patterns across Crater Lake National Park from Lidar Data

Historic American Buildings Survey Documentation of Historic Kantishna Roadhouse at Denali National Park

In spring 2017, Denali National Park consulted with the NPS Alaska Regional Office (AKRO) to develop a project for the documentation of the aging Kantishna Roadhouse, a building located near the end of the Denali Park Road in Denali National Park. The goal of the project was to obtain measurements using a terrestrial laser scanner in order to facilitate the production of Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) drawings that capture the existing condition of the structure.

Read more about Historic American Buildings Survey Documentation of Historic Kantishna Roadhouse at Denali National Park

Landsat Snow Mapping and Lichen Cover Mapping

The NPS has partnered with Alaska Biological Research (ABR), Inc., to develop an Alaska-wide map that shows general patterns of snowmelt in the spring at a 30-m (Landsat) scale. This information can be used to study habitat use by mammals and climate change, and to help plan for field work and infrastructure development. As part of this project, ABR also tested satellite-based methods to map lichen abundance in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. Lichens are the main forage for the Fortymile Caribou Herd in winter.

Read more about Landsat Snow Mapping and Lichen Cover Mapping

Monitoring Permafrost Thaw Slumps

The NPS, Arctic Inventory and Monitoring Network (ARCN) is using 35-mm aerial photography to monitor the growth of permafrost thaw slumps in the five national parks of northern Alaska. These slumps can grow for a decade or longer and shed large amounts of sediment into nearby rivers and lakes. ARCN scientists have obtained overlapping, oblique and vertical, digital aerial photographs of 15 slumps taken from a helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft in a 4 to 7 year span between 2008 and 2016.

Read more about Monitoring Permafrost Thaw Slumps

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