Springtime Orthomosaic Images and Digital Surface Models for Beaver Dams and Ponds, northern Baldwin Peninsula, Alaska, April 2024

The Arctic Beaver Observation Network (A-BON): Tracking a new disturbance regime project observes beaver engineering across circumarctic treeline and tundra environments during the last half-century by mapping and tracking beaver ponds using remote sensing imagery. Drones are being used to collect baseline data and track beaver dam building and pond evolution over time. This dataset consists of orthomosaic images and digital surface models (DSMs) derived from drone surveys on 02 April and 09 April 2024 for three beaver dam and beaver pond sites (Kotz3, BWest, and BEast) on the Baldwin Peninsula, Alaska. 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 drone system was flown at 120 meters (m) above ground level (agl) and flight speeds varied from 8-9 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% and 70%, respectively. All images were processed in the software Pix4D Mapper (v. 4.8.4) 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. Elevation information represents the snow-covered surface. A Leica Viva differential global positioning system (GPS) provided ground control for the mission and the data were post-processed to WGS84 UTM Zone 3 North in Ellipsoid Heights (meters).