Maine Apple IPM Prgram

Maine Orchard Aerial Photos

     Aerial photo images of orchards were provided to Maine apple growers for use as management aids to communicate locations within orchards for scouting, pruning, harvesting and other field work.  The images can also be useful to direct pick your own customers to specific areas within an orchard.  Retail operations might find color prints useful for display.

Source:
Maine Office of Geographic Information Systems (MEGIS)
State House Station 145
Augusta  ME   04333-0145
Telephone: (207) 624-7700

     You can view the photos online at
http://megisims.state.me.us/website/orthomap/viewer.htm

     Google Earth and other online services also provide access to aerial photographs.  For some locations these other sources may not be quite as high quality as the MEGIS images.  If you are going to make screen captures from one of the mapping web sites, set your monitor resolution to as high as you can before using a graphic program to copy and save the photo as a jpg file.

Background information
      The MEGIS aerial photo viewer was used to locate and zoom in on orchard locations.  With the monitor set at 1280x 960 pixel resolution, I used a graphics program (PaintShop Pro) to save screen images as jpg files.  Better results might be achieved by importing files into the free software available through MEGIS, but I found that loss in resolution in just taking capturing screen images was not significant because with the monitor set at 1280x960, the scale needed to include the area of interest in a single frame was beyond that at which pixelation was noticeable.

     The MEGIS photos are digitally orthorectified.  This is a process by which the viewing angle distortions in aerial photographs are removed so that the photos have map-like accuracy.

     Image quality varies by location.  As of June 23, 2006, the best quality photos are available for all of Cumberland County and parts of Androscoggin County (southeast from Auburn and New Gloucester).  Those photos were taken April 2001, from airplane at 6000 feet.  Each pixel is 0.5 square foot.  At close range, you can distinguish whether a vehicle is a van, pickup truck, or car.  Map scale is 1:1200, with accuracy to one inch in 100 feet.

      Color photos with 1 foot resolution were available for north and west portions of Androscoggin, and all of Franklin, Kennebec, Lincoln, Oxford, Sagadahoc, Somerset, and York counties.  Most of those photos were taken in March 1 to May 19, 2003, from an airplane at 6,000 feet.  Some photos were added in spring 2004.  Each pixel is 1 square foot.  At close range, you can identify vehicles but it is difficult to distinguish a truck versus a car.  Resolution is suitable for applications requiring map scale of 1:2400, with a National Map Accuracy Standard of +/- 7 feet. 

      For orchards in Waldo and Penobscot County, only low resolution black and white photos were available as of June 23, 2006.

     Funding and coordination to make the photos available was provided by the Maine GeoLibrary Board, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Conservation Service, and the U.S. Geological Service.

     The University of Maine Apple IPM Program extracted the individual orchard photos for use as management tools and provided them to growers.  When the Extension IPM scout finds scab or mites in a section of an orchard, it is easy and effective to use a 2 cent black and white print to communicate the location.  Files for commercial orchards of at least one acre within the coverage area for high resolution color photographs were sent to Maine apple growers.  

     The University of Maine Highmoor Farm photos are available as a Word file:

AerialPhotos/Aerial photo separates Highmoor ScoutRoute2006.doc  752K

and as Jpg images:

AerialPhotos/Aerial photo Highmoor - Block75 Monmouth.jpg  202K

AerialPhotos/Aerial photo Highmoor - Block77-85 Monmouth.jpg  225K

AerialPhotos/Aerial photo Highmoor - south Monmouth.jpg  290K