High resolution natural color, thermal, and multispectral imagery collected by uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) for mapping vegetation health and natural spring change at Hoxworth Springs, Clark Well and Buck Springs in the Coconino National Forest, AZ, 2025

The U.S. Geological Survey collected low-altitude airborne natural color imagery, surface temperatures and multispectral imagery via a hexacopter uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) for mapping Hoxworth Springs, Clark Well and Buck Springs in the Coconino National Forest in Arizona. Visual imagery was collected in jpg (for color imagery) and TIFF (for thermal imagery and multispectral imagery) format and Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry techniques were applied to derive high-resolution natural color, thermal (surface temperatures), and multispectral orthomosaics along with digital surface models and point clouds of the study areas in 2025. Ground control points (GCPs), which are temporary targets on the ground located by using a real-time kinematic global navigation satellite system (RTK-GNSS) base station and rover, were used in georectification in the SfM process. Agisoft Metashape Professional (v. 2.1.3 build 18946) was used to create a natural color orthomosaic, multispectral orthomosaic, and a surface temperature orthomosaic for the data collected in 2025.