Hello Ken.
Long time no see. I have put together several spreadsheets which tell the codes and locations for flights done by the Farm Service Agency and predecessors (AAA, PMA, CSS, ASCS), Forest Service, and the Soil Conservation Service. In the
FSA table, flights starting in 1972 typically use the FIPs code. Older flights and special projects use the alpha code. Forest Service flights are organized by FS region and Name. The Project field lists the code. SCS codes were extracted from Special List
25 from NARA and includes a County/Area field, though sometimes the Filed Under field provides a better description.
I could pull a list of codes used by the USGS and several other U. S. government agencies, but linking that to locations would take considerably more time than I am willing to put in. Instead, I would use EarthExplorer’s Aerial Photo Single
Frames layer and enter the project code into Additional Criteria rather than selecting a location for a search.
Good luck locating everything!
David
David Hodnefield
President, Historical Information Gatherers
office 952.253.2004
direct 952-777-1845
~ A window to the past that helps shape our future
From: Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. <[log in to unmask]>
On Behalf Of Ken Rockwell
Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2024 1:10 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Guide to mission codes on aerial photo sets?
Hi:
The University of Utah’s Marriott Library. Our Special Collections has a large number of aerial photographs, with no information about the terrain covered. The photos have the date and an identification number in top margin.
There will surely be other kinds of ID codes. I am hoping there is some sort of guide to various agencies and the codes they used for their flight missions or projects, so that from the date and project number I can know the geographic
area represented in these photos. Is such available? It’s the kind of thing that ought to be made easily findable, say, through WAML’s map librarian toolbox.
Any ideas?
--Ken Rockwell
J. Willard Marriott Library
University of Utah