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Historic Aerials between 1970 and 1995

Started by jeffandnicole, October 30, 2017, 02:06:09 PM

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jeffandnicole

Why are there so few aerial images available between 1970 and 1995?  I'm mainly looking at NJ, but bringing up a few other random places usually are also devoid of any aerials in that 25 year era.  Before 1970, there's actually quite a number of years of aerials available, and especially in the interstate highway boom time period of the late 50's you can see a lot of changes occurring.

The 1995 images are also generally of poor quality.  The images before, that, while B&W, aren't terribly bad for most years shown.


sbeaver44

56-70 was probably developing/testing/using tech for the Cold War?

Nexus 6P


jeffandnicole

Quote from: sbeaver44 on October 30, 2017, 02:08:12 PM
56-70 was probably developing/testing/using tech for the Cold War?

Nexus 6P



At least in my area, aerials are available (using www.historicaerials.com) for 1957, 63, 65, 67 & 70.

Desert Man

I clicked on the link, and looked at the aerial maps of my hometown Indio, CA - 1953 (then a town of 5,000 - the city limits then were 6 square miles in area), 1972 (when my Mom moved in from San Bernardino - it had 14,000 then) and 1996 (after a quarter of century of rapid development and population growth - 40 to 50,000). Today, Indio is 35 square miles (28 developed) and home to 90 to 100,000.
Get your kicks...on Route 99! Like to turn 66 upside down. The other historic Main street of America.

briantroutman

I've wondered that, too. For example, PennPilot (http://www.pennpilot.psu.edu) has aerial photography of Pennsylvania broken down into three eras: 1937-42, '57-62, and '67-72–but nothing newer.

You might want to check out the USGS's EarthExplorer (https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov). It's a bit clunky to navigate, but it draws upon a broad library of various aerial photo sets. I end up looking in the "Aerial Photo Single Frames"  database most often, and for many areas that I've looked at, EarthExplorer has aerial photo sets from the mid-late '70s and the '80s, which covers at least part of the "dark period" . One major advantage of EarthExplorer over Historic Aerials is that you can (with a free user account) download non-watermarked, full-resolution photos.

JasonOfORoads

Quote from: briantroutman on December 07, 2017, 03:22:03 PM
I've wondered that, too. For example, PennPilot (http://www.pennpilot.psu.edu) has aerial photography of Pennsylvania broken down into three eras: 1937-42, '57-62, and '67-72–but nothing newer.

You might want to check out the USGS's EarthExplorer (https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov). It's a bit clunky to navigate, but it draws upon a broad library of various aerial photo sets. I end up looking in the "Aerial Photo Single Frames"  database most often, and for many areas that I've looked at, EarthExplorer has aerial photo sets from the mid-late '70s and the '80s, which covers at least part of the "dark period" . One major advantage of EarthExplorer over Historic Aerials is that you can (with a free user account) download non-watermarked, full-resolution photos.

I too want to endorse EarthExplorer for aerial photography. I used it on my latest blog entry combined with an image comparison slider to show how an area looked in two different years. I was flabbergasted when I saw the pricing of HistoricAerials' images alone -- $90 for a JPG or PNG and $180 for a GeoTiff!

The interface is a bit clunky, and it's annoying having to sign up for a free account, but it's worth it. I too found a lot of success with "Aerial Photo Single Frames" thus far, with many images available in TIFF format in full resolution. And I mean full resolution -- the ones I downloaded were 100 megapixels in size, clocking in at about 85 MB. There's also a lot of geographical information and some metadata, including photo dates and frames stamped onto the original photo.
Borderline addicted to roadgeeking since ~1989.

silverback1065

Quote from: jeffandnicole on October 30, 2017, 02:12:55 PM
Quote from: sbeaver44 on October 30, 2017, 02:08:12 PM
56-70 was probably developing/testing/using tech for the Cold War?

Nexus 6P



At least in my area, aerials are available (using www.historicaerials.com) for 1957, 63, 65, 67 & 70.

i wish that site would take its damn watermarks off the maps, can't see anything!

Brandon

Quote from: JasonOfORoads on February 14, 2018, 04:02:40 AM
I too want to endorse EarthExplorer for aerial photography. I used it on my latest blog entry combined with an image comparison slider to show how an area looked in two different years. I was flabbergasted when I saw the pricing of HistoricAerials' images alone -- $90 for a JPG or PNG and $180 for a GeoTiff!

What a ripoff.  I do environmental site assessments, and I have a choice of ordering a set of historic aerials from two different companies.  They usually give you set of 8 to 12 of them (sometimes more, if you're lucky and the site was photographed more often) from 1938 onward in PDF format.
Environmental Data Resources (EDR) charges $155 for a package like that.
Envirosite Corporation charges $90 for the same package.
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg

vdeane

Quote from: briantroutman on December 07, 2017, 03:22:03 PM
You might want to check out the USGS's EarthExplorer (https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov). It's a bit clunky to navigate, but it draws upon a broad library of various aerial photo sets. I end up looking in the "Aerial Photo Single Frames"  database most often, and for many areas that I've looked at, EarthExplorer has aerial photo sets from the mid-late '70s and the '80s, which covers at least part of the "dark period" . One major advantage of EarthExplorer over Historic Aerials is that you can (with a free user account) download non-watermarked, full-resolution photos.
I noticed that the Aerial Photo Single Frames set has a note "this data set may have ordering costs".  Have you seen any that might cost money to order?  I'm tempted to register since it seems to be MUCH more complete (even before the dark period - the Historic Aerials sets for Rochester skip straight from "no freeways" to "everything that wasn't a long-term 'missing link'" to "stuff I was actually alive for".  For example, I could finally see the original configuration of the Norton Street interchange (if there really was one) - Historic Aerials skips straight from "no future 590" to "104 already built" without the in-between period.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

briantroutman

Quote from: vdeane on February 14, 2018, 02:48:34 PM
I noticed that the Aerial Photo Single Frames set has a note "this data set may have ordering costs".  Have you seen any that might cost money to order?

So far out of probably of hundreds of frames I've downloaded, I haven't yet come across one that wasn't free. I'd say there's no risk to signing up for an account–that in itself is free. They seem to want you to register so that they can track what kinds of professionals are using the service (they ask a few questions about your industry and position), and perhaps also to prevent bots from mass-downloading the library.

vdeane

I actually found a couple - Syracuse 1988.  Turns out they're pretty obvious - no thumbnail and no preview available.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.



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