An aerial image library is a collection of
aerial imagery
Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other flight, airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography.
Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-win ...
. The imagery is taken from cameras placed on aircraft, which capture images of the structures and features of the land below. These libraries can contain millions of individual images which depict geographic areas in incredible detail.
Aerial image libraries can provide a wealth of information to users of the imagery. Governments often use such libraries to maintain current records of
construction
Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and ...
and in conducting
property assessment.
Insurance
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...
companies can also use aerial image libraries to maintain records of
natural disaster-related damages.
Utilities
A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and ...
companies may also keep libraries of
electric corridors and
pipeline networks to plan expansion or maintenance.
Pictometry – The Aerial Oblique Photography Company
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Using computer software, aerial image libraries can stitch together images to create lifelike maps of geographic regions. These maps can be either orthogonal
In mathematics, orthogonality is the generalization of the geometric notion of '' perpendicularity''.
By extension, orthogonality is also used to refer to the separation of specific features of a system. The term also has specialized meanings in ...
(top-down images) or oblique
Oblique may refer to:
* an alternative name for the character usually called a slash (punctuation) ( / )
*Oblique angle, in geometry
* Oblique triangle, in geometry
* Oblique lattice, in geometry
* Oblique leaf base, a characteristic shape of the ...
(images captured at an angle). If these images are geo-referenced Georeferencing means that the internal coordinate system of a map or aerial photo image can be related to a geographic coordinate system. The relevant coordinate transforms are typically stored within the image file (GeoPDF and GeoTIFF are examples) ...
, users can determine precisely where the structures and features depicted are located on the earth.
References
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Aerial photography