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Schoolyard Geology: How to use the National Map

Using the National Map

Click to enlarge.

This aerial photograph of Claremont School in Oakland was found using a free web site run by the USGS called the National Map. Cars, trees, basketball courts (including the shadow of the backboard), and even individual classroom windows are visible. You can download one of your school, too! The National Map has air photos of most of the country -- the clarity of the photos varies by region, with the best quality images covering urban areas throughout the country.

To obtain a high resolution aerial photo of your school or home:

1. Open the Terraserver portal to the National Map: http://terraserver.microsoft.com/
2. Type the address of your home or school on the left side.
3. Click the circular "GO" button to the right of your state.
4. A list of locations will pop up. You have the option to view either topographic maps or aerial photos. For some urban areas, you can get high resolution color aerial photos. These images are wonderful, so click on the bold words "Urban Areas" if you have the option. Otherwise, click on the bold words "Aerial Photo." The date next to the bold words indicate the approximate date the photo was taken or the map was originally published.
5. You can zoom in or out using the bar to the left of the image. You can move north, south, east, or west by clicking on the word written along the frame of the image. You can also zoom into a specific location by clicking on it on the map.
6. If you have a big screen and want the image to fill more of it, click on the size squares in the upper left corner above the image. The default is a small image.
7. You can save the image to your disk by clicking "Download" near the upper right and then following the instructions on the page below the image.
8. You can print the image by clicking "Print" near the upper right. A few options will appear along the top of the image. Click "Send to Printer" when you are ready to print. However, you might want to try "Show Grid Lines" to display latitude and longitude lines on the map, or "Switch to Landscape" to rotate the image so that it looks better on the page.

1. Open the National Map web site: http://nmviewogc.cr.usgs.gov/viewer.htm. (The site can also be accessed from the easier to remember URL: http://nationalmap.gov. Click "Go to Viewer" in red on the left side to start viewing maps.)
2. From the icons on the left side, select Find Place (5th down).
3. Click on Zoom to an Address (middle of the page)
4. Type in your Street Address and Zip Code. Click Zoom to Address
5. From the right side, click on the small black triangle to the left of Ortho-imagery (middle of list).
6. A new list will appear with all the available air photos available for this area. You'll have one or two options:
   • For urban areas, there is often high quality imagery available under the white heading OTHER IMAGERY. The names of these image collections can be cryptic, so just choose one to start with. Click on the small white box to the left of the name to turn on the check box.
   • If it says "No Imagery Available" below "OTHER IMAGERY," don't worry -- there is still a good option for you. For most of the US, there will be an item called DOQ in white. Click on the small white box to the left of DOQ to turn on the check box.
   Then, click the Refresh Required button at the bottom of this panel.
7. From the icons on the left side, click on Zoom In (2nd down).
8. Now, move your mouse over the map in the center of the page. You can zoom in on a region by drawing a box around your area of interest. To do that, press the mouse button down in the upper corner of the imaginary box you want to draw around your school and keep the mouse button down. While holding the mouse button down, move your mouse and a box should draw on the map. When you let go of the mouse button, the map will zoom in on the area of you selected using the box. (If you are having trouble clicking and holding, clicking the mouse button once will recenter and zoom in on the point that you click on. This is a perfectly good option).
9. Keep zooming in until you can see your school up close. Note that if you zoom in too far, the air photo image will not show up and you'll have only a question mark at the center of the screen. If that happens, you can select Zoom Back from the icon bar on the left side (4th one down). This will take you to the previous view you had. Try zooming in again to a slightly larger box this time.
10. Feel free to play with turning on and off different layers, both in the Orthoimagery category and other categories on the right side.

To Save your image to a file or Print it...

1. From the icons on the left side, Click on the "Print" button (even if you don't want to print the image now).
2. A new window will pop and ask you if you would like to include latitude/longitude tick marks and a legend. Legends are an important part of maps, so you probably want to turn that on by checking the box. Latitude/Longitude tick marks are good for middle school students and above, but should probably be turned off when showing maps to younger students.
3. Click "Create Printable Map.
4. The window will change in a few seconds (up to 30). Click on the link labeled "View Printable Map."
5. Your web browser should automatically begin downloading an Acrobat PDF version of the map that was on your screen. You can save this to a disk or print it out using a PDF viewer program. The default file name will begin with "natmap" (for National Map) and will have a long string of numbers. You can rename the file.

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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey URL: http://education.usgs.gov/schoolyard/ Page Contact Information:USGS Education Web Team Page Last Modified: 24 July 2006