High Resolution Aerial Photography of the Main Eight Hawaiian Islands, 2000

Aerial photographs were acquired for the Main Eight Hawaiian Islands Benthic Mapping Project in 2000 by NOAA Aircraft Operation Centers aircraft and National Geodetic Survey cameras and personnel. Approximately 1,500, color, 9 by 9 inch photos were taken of the coastal waters of the Main Eight Hawaiian Island at 1:24,000 scale. Specific sun angle and maximum percent cloud cover were adhered to when possible during photography missions to ensure high quality imagery for the purpose of benthic mapping. Prints and diapositives were created from the original negatives. Diapositives were then scanned at a resolution of 500 dpi using a metric scanner, yielding 1.0 by 1.0 meter pixels for the 1:24,000 scale photography. All scans were saved in TIFF format for the purposes of orthorectification and photointerpretation. Original TIFFs were also converted to jpg format to reduce the file size and facilitate web based distribution. Images are currently available in jpeg format for download at 72, 150 and 500 dpi resolution.