Ordnance Survey announced a significant update to its flagship aerial photography product, OS MasterMap Imagery Layer, ensuring that it remains a market leading proposition for aerial imagery in Great Britain.
More than 120,000 km² of new and updated aerial photography, the equivalent to half of Britain, has been made available to customers over the last 12 months. This is the result of an intense period of imagery production and follows successful flying seasons over the last two years.
David Henderson, Senior Product Manager at Ordnance Survey, says, “With the introduction of our digital mapping camera and a more integrated approach to data capture and processing, we have made a dramatic improvement to the currency of our imagery during the last 12 months. Furthermore, by integrating our programmes of image and topography data collection we can offer ever greater synchronicity between our products.
“I believe that the quality and currency of OS MasterMap Imagery Layer continues to set the benchmark for national imagery data in Great Britain and these latest updates demonstrate our continued commitment to provide our customers with data they can rely on.”
Rhona Elrick of Registers of Scotland comments, “Aerial photography provides a valuable aid in the land-registration process by helping us assess the occupation, nature and usage of the land. Registers of Scotland identified OS MasterMap Imagery Layer as providing the best balance between value for money, coverage and currency to fit our needs.”
OS MasterMap Imagery Layer offers seamless coverage of Great Britain. The high‑resolution imagery is colour balanced and fully orthorectified, meaning that it accurately reflects the position of features at ground level without distortion. This also ensures alignment with all the other layers in the OS MasterMap family.
Accurate and high-quality aerial imagery adds a compelling visual dimension to a varied range of applications, including land registration, forest management, planning, event management and major-incident response.
In addition to local authority and utility customers, OS MasterMap Imagery Layer is relied on by several key government departments, including the Forestry Commission, Registers of Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage.