The National Geospatial Program (NGP) is planning to complete the retirement of the High Resolution Orthoimagery (HRO) portion of imagery data and services on September 29, 2017.  Access to standard HRO data products and HRO services through the National Map will be discontinued at that time.

HRO data generally consists of 1 meter or better resolution, leaf-off, orthorectified imagery products acquired over the nation’s major urban regions and provided through The National Map.

The data were acquired through 2014 in collaboration with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency with cover routinely expanded in partnership with local, regional, and state governments. The NGP is continuing support of access to National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) orthoimagery data and services, provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The source imagery used in the generation of the standard HRO data products and services will continue to be made available through Earth Explorer by the USGS Land Remote Sensing Program.

The sunset of HRO data and services is part of a shift in USGS priorities towards the accelerated development of the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP).

“The USGS anticipated that imagery data acquired through 2014 would have a useful lifecycle of three years”, said Paul Wiese, NGP Orthoimagery Theme Lead, “and we are now approaching the end of this three year period.”

As new imagery platforms become available and as other imagery programs evolve, the NGP will work with the data and service providers to support orthoimagery as a base reference data layer for the users of the National Map.

Links to data and services that will be retired:

   High Resolution Orthoimagery Data

   High Resolution Orthoimagery Service

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