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Air Photos: UNBC's Air Photo Collection

An overview of Air Photos, UNBC's Air Photo Collection, and information for accessing these photos for your research needs

UNBC Air Photo Finder

NOTE: UNBC's Air Photo collection is only searchable on-campus

UNBC's air photo collection is indexed in a web-based application, the UNBC Air Photo Finder, available here: http://airphoto.unbc.ca/airphoto/OpenMap/. This tool allow you to:

1) Search the entire collection by roll and frame number.

2) Search all national air photos by location

3) Search all post-1960 provincial photos by location

Searching for Photos by Geographic Area

  1.  Zoom the map in to the location you are interested in - click and drag to pan the map, and scroll or use the +/- button in the upper left-hand corner to zoom.
  2. Select 'Draw Focus Area'. This tool will create a polygon - single-click where you want the corners to be, and double-click to complete your shape
  3. Select 'Query by Focus Area' - a results box will appear in the middle of the screen giving you the size of the area you selected, as well as the records found for this area in our collection.
    • Did you get zero results? Check the size of the area you selected. If it's small (less than 100 squared kilometres) try selecting a larger area around your area of interest. This search function finds photos based on their centres, and by selecting a small area it is likely to miss photos of interest.
  4. Want to see the photos in person? You can export the list of results to a CSV file and submit it via the Air Photo Request Form.

Searching for Photos by Roll and Frame Number

  1. Find the photos you are interested in using the tools in the sections on BC Air Photos or Federal Air Photos
  2. Select the "Search" button - the small pair of binoculars in the middle of the toolbar.
  3. Put in the Roll and Frame numbers you are interested in. The search is case-sensitive, so make sure to capitalize the letters at the beginning of the roll
    • Note: the options to search by year, emulsion, scale, and flying height are only available for photos that are searchable by geography.
  4. Click the 'Search' button with your mouse.
  5. Results for photos in our collection will appear in the right-hand pane. These lists can be exported to csv and submitted via the Air Photo Request Form.

Why can't I search them all by location?

UNBC's collection containsair photos from provincial and federal flights, spanning nearly the last 100 years. Not all of these flights have paths that have been georeferenced, which means we aren't able to search for these photos by a geographic location in the Air Photo Finder. As more of these flight paths are georeferenced we will add them to our application, allowing more photos to be located in this way.

Subject Librarian

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Susie Wilson
Contact:
250-960-6607