How to make a mosaic from WW2 aerial survey photographs?

[JohnFraser]

The archives here on Ssipan, CNMI contain  a set of photographs from a 1945 US Navy or Army aerial survey of the entire island of Saipan.

My task is to combine them into a single photographic image file.

The photos are b&w and approximately 10" x 10".

The facility where the photographs are archived has a 600 dpi scanner.

I have access to the photographs only and not the original negatives.

Do you have any suggestions on the best way for me to proceed?

Thanks.

john

[SepheFox]

Hi John, the toolset should be visible in the ArcCatalog window, and you should be able to see three script tools inside that can be opened in ArcMap like any other tool.

[RebeccaStrauch__GISP]

After downloading and unzipping, I copied the  .pyt file and the Doc folder to my

     C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\ESRI\Desktop10.3\ArcToolbox\My Toolboxes

folder (replace 10.3 with your version, if needed).  I then restarted ArcCatalog and it appears in My Toolboxes

Although I copied the Doc folder there....I think having it in a handier location would be good since it contains two PDF docs....(so I'm moving mine someplace else).

EDIT:  by the way, I noticed that 10.3.1 is required for some of the tools, so keep that in mind.

[JohnFraser]

Hi Sephe and Rebecca, a belated thanks for your advice. We've had two typhoons this month here on Saipan. Power is intermittent and I haven't revisited the the blog long enough to respond. I appreciate the details you've laid out and will use them to get the new tools into my program which is 10.3.0.4322. Thanks again.

[JohnFraser]

Got it. I now have the Historical Imagery toolset in My Toolbox. Big thanks.

[PaulVanDyke]

I would recommend a third-party product in the "structure from motion" genre.  An example is Agisoft's Photoscan. You can download a 30-day trial of the Pro version and use it.

I would "assemble" the photos in Photoscan and add the GCPs from Google Earth and then bring the resulting imagery back into ArcMap.  You will be surprised at how easy it is to obtain a great quality orthophoto from these old prints.  It can be very useful for change detection.

Paul VanDyke

[JohnFraser]

Thanks Paul. I got the free month of Photoscan Pro as you suggested. Now to learn how to use it. Much appreciated.

john