1 By Jennie Murack, MIT Libraries

Downloading Aerial Imagery using EarthExplorer

Contents Accessing EarthExplorer ................................................................................................................................ 1

Searching for Data......................................................................................................................................... 2

Downloading ................................................................................................................................................. 5

Viewing the Images ....................................................................................................................................... 6

Accessing EarthExplorer 1. Access EarthExplorer here: http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ 2. If you have not used EarthExplorer before, register using the link at the top right. While it’s not

required to search the data, you need to register in order to download images, and it will save you time by doing it now.

3. Login using the link in the upper right corner.

2 By Jennie Murack, MIT Libraries

Searching for Data 4. Enter an address in to the box on the left and/or zoom into an area and click “Use Map” to limit

your search to a specific geographic area.

5. Select a date range. 6. Click Data Sets >> 7. Expand Aerial Photography and check off the datasets you are interested in. Click “i” to learn

more about each dataset. The oldest photographs are found in the Aerial Photo Single Frame collection.

3 By Jennie Murack, MIT Libraries

8. Click Results when you are finished making selections. 9. Click the dropdown menu under “Data Set:” to see the results for each dataset you selected.

Use the Show Footprint or Show Browse Overlay buttons under each photograph to see where it is located on the map. Higher quality images are available when you download them. You can also view metadata.

4 By Jennie Murack, MIT Libraries

5 By Jennie Murack, MIT Libraries

Downloading When you have identified the images you want, you can download them each separately, by clicking the Download Options button under each photograph, or you can add them to a bulk download to download several items at once. Downloading single images:

1. Click the Download Options button under each photograph to download it. 2. If you are not logged in, you will be prompted to login. 3. Select the resolution and click Select Download Option. 4. Click Download to start the download.

Bulk downloads:

1. Click the Bulk Download button under each photograph you want to download. 2. When you are finished selecting photos, click the View Basket button to see all the photographs

you selected. 3. Expand each Data Set to see the individual items and to change the resolution or other options.

4. If you made changes, click Save Changes. 5. Click Proceed to Checkout. 6. Click Submit Order. 7. You will be sent an email with download information. You will first need to install the Bulk

Download Application (BDA) using the link and instructions found in the email.

6 By Jennie Murack, MIT Libraries

Viewing the Images Depending on the file sizes, your images may be in .tif.gz format and you will need to unzip them. If you do not already have a program that unzips this type of file, you can download 7-zip for free at http://www.7-zip.org/ The downloaded images may not be georeferenced, especially if they are old images (geotif format is georeferenced while tif is not). This means that if you add them to ArcMap, they will not display in the correct locations. If you want to use them in ArcMap, use the georeferencing toolbar. You can learn more about that here: http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#/Fundamentals_of_georeferencing_a_raster_dataset/009t000000mn000000/