Getting high resolution aerial images from the Web (USGS http://earthexplorer.usgs.

gov/ ) for use in GIS

1. Go to http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/
2. Go to Register and register your email to Create an Account.

3. Follow the instruction and create a new account. If you already have an USGS account, you can simply
Login.
4. There are many ways to navigate the maps but we will use interactive map to find our area of
interest. Alternatively, you can put the coordinates, address, name of the place etc. in the search box to
find an area of interest.
5. Now, go to the map and click and drag the map around. Now zoon the area of your interest by using
forward scroll of your mouse. It will look just like Google map, when you find Athens, try finding Lake
Herrick. To move the map around you can click and drag (it will Pan).

Subash Dahal
PhD, Student, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, University of Georgia

Getting high resolution aerial images from the Web (USGS http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ ) for use in GIS

6. Now Left click around the Lake to create an area of interest. Make a few clicks, so that you will cover
the whole lake. It will automatically form a polygon around the lake.
7. Now, On the top left of the explorer> Click Data Sets

Subash Dahal
PhD, Student, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, University of Georgia

Getting high resolution aerial images from the Web (USGS http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ ) for use in GIS
8. You will see a list of options (Different types of data available for the area you selected). Most of them
are free. For some you will have to pay.
9. For this lesson, we will only focus on getting a high resolution aerial image (For free).
10. Expand the Aerial Imagery and select High Resolution Orth Imagery

11. Now Click the Results Tab on the top of the Search Area. The Results will be shown (Sorted by date)

12. As the Images are very high resolution, they cover small area but have large disk sizes (100 MB each)
Depending on the size of the area of your Interest, you might have to do download many images and
Mosaic them later in ArcGIS.
13. Click the Download Options Button and Click Download.

Subash Dahal
PhD, Student, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, University of Georgia

Getting high resolution aerial images from the Web (USGS http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ ) for use in GIS
14. It will be downloaded as a Zip file. Extract the Zip file using any unzipping software. In Windows 10
you should be able to do it by Right clicking the folder>Click Extract All.
15. Now navigate inside the extracted folder. If you downloaded the map for Georgia, the folder will be
named GA. Go in that folder and it will have date of the aerial Imagery. Go in that folder and navigate to
vol001 folder. This location will have your Imagery.

16. Now open an empty ArcMap document.

17. click Add data and navigate to the folder where you have the unzipped Image.

18. If your data in in a folder which is not connected to ArcGIS, you will have to create a folder
connection. Click on the Folder with a +sign and navigate to the folder in which the data is present.

Subash Dahal
PhD, Student, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, University of Georgia

Getting high resolution aerial images from the Web (USGS http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ ) for use in GIS
19. The file type is .tiff and it a raster Image.

19. Now you have a high resolution aerial imagery of the area of your interest.
20. You can also download other data from the http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ website (e.g. Digital
elevation Model, Digital Maps etc.). You can explore the Data type in the search sub-window.

Subash Dahal
PhD, Student, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, University of Georgia