A digital orthophoto is a raster image of remotely sensed data in which displacement in the image due to sensor orientation and terrain relief have been removed. Orthophotos combine the image characteristics of a photograph with the geometric qualities of a map. The coverage includes the south shore of Long Island from eastern part of the Borough of Queens to the eastern shore of Shinnecock Bay at the Village of Southampton.
Coverage also extends inland to roughly correspond with the surface run-off watershed.
Covered area is approximately 500 square miles. The Digital Orthophotography was produced as part of the South Shore Estuary Reserve Plan. Specifically, the orthophoto series of the SSER from 1994 was created to provide a base map to overlay current ground condition with both current and historical geographic data sources. The orthphotos could serve a variety of purposes, from field references for spatial anaylsis to a tool for revision of vector based maps. The orthphotos can also be useful as a layer for a GIS or as an interim map.