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King County GIS Center
King Street Center
201 S. Jackson St.
Suite 706
Seattle, WA 98104
giscenter@kingcounty.gov

47.59909 N
122.33136 W

47° 35' 56.72" N
122° 19' 52.90" W
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Orthophotography Data

Overview: Orthophotography Data
Summary of Orthophotography Data Products
Summary of Orthophotograpy Storage Specifications
Orthophotography Data Products

Overview: Orthophotography Data

The King County Spatial Data Warehouse (KCGIS SDW) stores orthophotography and satellite imagery of multiple vintages, resolutions, and extents. Data is available in natural color, panchromatic (B&W) and multispectral formats, though not all versions are available for each dataset. Please refer to the descriptions below, and metadata where available, for more information about each dataset.

Summary of Orthophotography Data Products

Not all data is available for release to the public or agencies and cities outside of King County government due to licensing agreements. Data may be made available, with restrictions, to consultants and other parties operating under contract or other formal agreement with King County. Availability of data to other outside parties is included in the summary below.

Orthophoto DatasetVintageDetails of Data Licensing and Access Restrictions
    Specifications Data Extent Comments Can be obtained from King County How it can be obtained
Western King County 1936 1-band, panchromatic, 8-bit,1-ft pixel Project area: Western King County, Vashon Island Leaf-on data Yes, but with some Distribution restrictions. See metadata. Contact us for a custom data request.
City of Seattle 1993 1-band, panchromatic, 8-bit,1-ft pixel Project area: Seattle City limit area Leaf-off data No Contact source directly.
NIES 1996 3-band, natural color, 8-bit,3.28-ft pixel Project area: Western King County, I-90 urban corridor, southern Snohomish Cty Leaf-on data Yes Contact us for a custom data request.
WA Dept of Natural Resources 1998 1-band, panchromatic, 8-bit,3-ft pixel Project area : Entire King County, southern Snohomish County Leaf-on data No Contact source directly.
DAIS 2000 3-band, color infrared, 8-bit,1.64-ft pixel Project area: Vashon Island Leaf-on data, derived from 4-band multispectral data No Contact source directly.
3-band, natural color, 8-bit,1.64-ft pixel Project area: Vashon Island Leaf-on data, derived from 4-band multispectral data
Emerge 2000 3-band, color infrared, 8-bit,2-ft pixel Project area: Western King County, southwestern Snohomish Cty Leaf-on data Yes Contact us for a custom data request.
3-band, natural color, 8-bit,2-ft pixel Project area: Western King County, southwestern Snohomish Cty Leaf-on data, no blue band available for natural color creation, contains Vashon Island portions
Ikonos 2000 3-band, natural color, 8-bit,15-ft pixel Project area: Eastern King County rural areas Leaf-on data, satellite acquisition No Contact source directly.
Space Imaging natural color composite 2000 3-band, natural color, 8-bit,4-ft pixel Project area: Entire King County, southwestern Snohomish County Leaf-on data, resampled composite of three Space Imaging data projects No Contact source directly.
King County 2002 3-band, natural color, 8-bit,1-ft pixel Project area: Entire King County, southwestern Snohomish Cty, extent limited to lidar acquistion Leaf-on data, two acquisition resolutions resampled to 1-ft, rectified to lidar-derived terrain model Yes Contact us for a custom data request.
USGS Urban High-Resolution 2002 3-band, natural color, 8-bit,0.98-ft pixel Project area: Western King County/ southern Snohomish County urban area, does not include all I-90 urban corridor Leaf-on data , rectified to USGS DEM, actual pixel size 1-ft Yes Contact us for a custom data request.
City of Seattle 2005 3-band, natural color, 8-bit,0.5-ft pixel Project area: City limits of Seattle Early leaf-on data No Contact source directly.
Western King County (Aerials Express) 2005 3-band, natural color, 8-bit,1-ft pixel Project area: Western, urbanized, King County and SW Snohomish County Leaf-on data No Contact source directly.
Pictometry Oblique and Vertical imagery - Western King County 2005 not tiled not tiled not tiled No Oblique and vertical imagery (2005-2006) is bundled with required ArcGIS extension and standalone desktop software. Available to licensed project participants only (Cities and other public service entities in King County). No tiled orthoimagery is available for this data set. Contact the King County GIS Data Coordinator for additional information.
King County - 0.5 and 1-foot (Pictometry) tiled orthoimagery 2007 3-band, natural color, 8-bit,0.5-ft pixel in west KC and 1-ft pixel in east KC

Project area: King County and SW Snohomish County

Leaf-on data No Orthoimagery is not available for distribution to the general public. At this time it is available solely to licensed project participants (Cities and other public service entities in King County). Licensed package includes orthoimagery tiles. Contact King County GIS Data Coordinator for additional information.
Pictometry Oblique and Vertical imagery - King County and southwestern Snohomish County 2007 not tiled not tiled not tiled No Oblique and vertical imagery (2007) is bundled with required ArcGIS extension and standalone desktop software. Available to licensed project participants only (Cities and other public service entities in King County). Orthoimagery tiles are included. Contact King County GIS Data Coordinator for additional information.

King County - 0.5 and 1-foot (Pictometry) tiled orthoimagery

West County will be available in late summer. East County will be available in late fall.

 2009 3-band, natural color, 8-bit,0.5-ft pixel in west KC and 1-ft pixel in east KC

Project area: King County and SW Snohomish County

Only western King County/SW Snohomish available now. Eastern KC available later in 2009

 Leaf-on data No Orthoimagery is not available for distribution to the general public. At this time it is available solely to licensed project participants (Cities and other public service entities in King County). Licensed package includes orthoimagery tiles. Contact King County GIS Data Coordinator for additional information.

Pictometry Oblique and Vertical imagery - King County and southwestern Snohomish County

West County will be available in late summer. East County will be available in late fall.

 2009 not tiled not tiled not tiled No Oblique and vertical imagery (2009) is bundled with required ArcGIS extension and standalone desktop software. Available to licensed project participants only (Cities and other public service entities in King County). Orthoimagery tiles are included. Contact King County GIS Data Coordinator for additional information.
Landsat and TM Satellite Imagery Various vintages not tiled not tiled not tiled Yes Contact us for a custom data request.
USGS Digital Topographic Quadrangle Graphics (DRG) Various quadrangle dates not tiled not tiled not tiled Yes Contact us for a custom data request.

For data that King County can release, we can assist you in selecting the correct data and format for your needs, and in providing a cost-estimate for data preparation and media delivery. All imagery requests require submission of the CustomData Request form, in order for staff to properly estimate the effort needed to provide the data. The GIS Center can also assist you in contacting the original source or vendor for data that we cannot redistribute.

Summary of Orthophotography file/storage specifications for KCGIS SDW image library

Image data sets are available in different formats, resolutions and tiling schemes. Depending on your business needs, you may wish to use data in either its native format (usually at the lowest 7500-ft tiling level) or at the township-range tiling level where the data has stored in a compressed image format, but still retains nearly full resolution. Larger mosaics at the zone tiling level are also available, plus each dataset is stored as a single tile in the keyregion directory. These latter files are more strongly compressed so lose some of their image quality but are useful when easy access to the the regional picture is important.