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Alice,
The University of Florida Map & Imagery Library has a representativ col-
lection of satellite imagery contact prints for the Bahamas. These are LANDST
images acquired in the 1970's and 1980's before the US program was privitized.
They are mainly band 5 & Color InfraRed in 36" format (@1:250,000). The
Caribbean is one of the specialities of our Library and the Bahamas are near
neighbors. Thus we collect any books and spatial materials we can acquire.
Since the changeover, the prints have become so expensive that we update the
collection only when research projects require it. Because of the fragile
nature of the imagery and it's replacement expense, the imagery does not
leave the library. However, anyone is welcomed to view it.
One alternative to explore is the WWW site that NASA has established for
imagery. There are numerous images but I as of yet I have not searched for
non-U.S. areas. Supposedly you can down load the image. These are older images
from the 1970's and early 80's. Hopefully someone else has the Web site
address as we currently are experiencing connection problems.
If your patron wishes to purchase their own imagery, there has been extensive
satellite imagery produced by the U.S. LANDSAT program as well as the
French satellite, SPOT. These are both available for purchase in the U.S.
If the user wants to know what is available for the Bahamas from the US
program, he should contact the EROS Data Center, US Geological Survey in Sioux
Falls, South Dakota. The toll free number for User Services is 1-800-367-
2801. He should have the Lat and Long. ready to give to the representative
with desired dates and cloud cover percentage that would be acceptable.
This information will result usually in a number of computer printouts. He
should be sure and ask for an explanation of terms if image acquistion is
unfamilar to him.
The patron should be told that purchasing satellite imagery in digital form
is quite expensive. Adding the cost of making a negative and printing the
image can often run several thousand dollars for larger format and/or Color
InfraRed images. We often buy a slide of the image before we acquire the
print. This eliminates expensive surprises such as the 10% cloud cover being
over the only area you need. If currentness is not an absolute necessity, the
imagery from the early 80's, before privatization, used to be much cheaper. I
have not had to buy older images for a while so this may have changed. As you
can see ordering imagery can be confusing for the first timer.
When Mary Larsgaard and I did an inventory of libraries in the United States
that had remote sensing imagery, there were several that were mainly
satellite images of earth or space. However, most libraries in the US held
aerial photography and usually satellite imagery was non-existant or limited
to their own state or a teaching set. One suggestion in New York is to try
Syracuse University. They had a good aerial photograph collection and were
considering adding satellite imagery. However, this information is four years
old. Of course, the Canadians also have excellent imagery and have worked
extensively in the Caribbean. Unfortunately our survey had to be limited to
US academic and research libraries.
I have not included the SPOT Image company phone number, etc. as my time just
became limited. However, it sounds like the patron just wishes to see the
images and purchase them anyway. One factor which will affect his viewing
the images is that that most researchers prefer acquiring the imagery in dig-
ital form which they can manipulate with programs such as ERDAS for the desired
results. Thus "photographs" are infrequently purchased for their purposes.
If I can provide any other details or you wish to know more detailed results
of the survey, please contact me.
HelenJane Armstrong, Map & Imagery Library University of Florida
HJARMS-NERVM.NERDC.UFL.EDU
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