Orthomosaic Image and Digital Surface Model for Point Lay (Kali), Alaska, 26 June 2022

The Native Village of Point Lay (Kali) on the North Slope of Alaska has been identified as the second-most permafrost thaw-affected community in the state of Alaska (Denali Commission, 2019). The village has 82 residential units, housing a population of approximately 330. There are several North Slope Borough municipal structures and the Kali School that serve the community. Most of the residential buildings in the village are built on an elevated surface underlain by ice-rich permafrost that is susceptible to thaw and terrain subsidence.
This dataset consists of an orthomosaic and digital surface model (DSM) derived from drone surveys on 26 June 2022 in Point Lay, Alaska. 990 digital images were acquired from a DJI Phantom 4 Real-Time Kinematic (DJI P4RTK) quadcopter with a DJI D-RTK 2 Mobile Base Station. The mapped area was around 130 hectares (ha). The drone system was flown at 120 meters (m) above ground level (agl) and flight speeds varied from 7–8 meters/second (m/s). The orientation of the camera was set to 90 degrees (i.e. looking straight down). The along-track overlap and across-track overlap of the mission were set at 80 percent (%) and 70%, respectively. All images were processed in the software Pix4D Mapper (v. 4.7.5) using the standard 3D Maps workflow and the accurate geolocation and orientation calibration method to produce the orthophoto mosaic and digital surface model at spatial resolutions of 5 and 10 centimeters (cm), respectively. A Leica Viva differential global positioning system (GPS) provided ground control for the mission and the data were post-processed to WGS84 UTM Zone 5 North in Ellipsoid Heights (meters). Elevation information derived over waterbodies is noisy and does not represent the surface elevation of the feature.