Remote Sensing

Remote sensing is a group of techniques where by landforms, soils, vegetation, land use, snow cover, meteorological disturbances, etc. can be sensed by aerial survey, airborne electronic devices and orbital satellites - A Modern Dictionary of Geography, third edition, John Small and Michael Witherick

Airphotos

The Map Room holds close to 50,000 aerial photographs that cover the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The air photo indexes are overlaid on maps of the Canadian National Topographic System (NTS), thus they are filed in the same order as the topographic maps.

NOTE: access to the air photo collection is only available during regular staff hours, Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. September to May and 9:00 am to 4:30 p.m. June to August.

To find an airphoto in the Map Room, follow these steps:

1) Determine the NTS grid number that covers the needed area. To find this number do the following:
a) Use one of the two gazetteers of Newfoundland and Labrador located on the oversize map cabinets and look up your place of interest. The NTS number is in one of the columns of information.
b) Use the NTS index for Newfoundland and Labrador, also located on the oversize map cabinets, to find the needed number.
c) You may also find the NTS number by performing a geographical names query. For example, the NTS number for St. John's is 1N/10, for Corner Brook,12A/13, and for Happy Valley - Goose Bay, 13 F/08

2) Use the green "Air Photo Index Book" (photos in the book are circa 1960's) located on the oversize cabinets, or the paper indexes, filed in NTS order, located in the first two drawers of map cabinet no. 88 near the front on the Map Room
a) Find the required index sheet
b) On the index sheet, find the required area
c) Record the flight line(s) and photo numbers indicated on the flight line(s)
d) Bring this information to a staff member of the Map Room who will pull the photos for you.

Map Room staff are available during staff hours to assist with locating and signing out airphotos. Airphotos have the same loan period as books and are signed out by Map Room staff.

Electronic Indexes

The Department of Environment & Conservation, Surveys and Mapping Division, Newfoundland and Labrador offers an online version of the airphoto indexes for the Province of Newfoundland & Labrador. Maps NL provides free access to on-line maps and air photo indexes.

Click on "Air Photo Index" in the "Select Your MapsNL Application" box and follow the instructions on the right-hand side of the page.

The Map Room may not hold all airphotos produced by the Surveys and Mapping Department. They are available for viewing and/or sale at the Howley Building on Higgins Line in the Airphoto/Map Sales Branch. Their telephone number is 729-3304 or 729-3305.

Satellite Imagery

Landsat Imagery: in slide format covering each of the Canadian Provinces.

SPOT Imagery in GeoTIFF format available for research. Please contact Map Room staff for access to SPOT data. Further information on each of these files can be found in the Library catalogue by conducting a title search using the name of each image (e.g. Meelpaeg Lake)

Meelpaeg Lake 5m panchromatic image	Mealy Mountains 20m multispectral image	Exploits Valley 5m panchromatic image
Torngat Mountains 10m multispectral image	Northeast Avalon 2.5m panchromatic image	Bay of Islands 10m 4-band multispectral image
Bay St. George 10m 4-band multispectral image	Northern Peninsula(tip) 10m 4-band multispectral image	Port au Port Peninsula 10m 4-band multispectral image

Electronic Resources

View Memorial University campus 1966 and 2001*.
*photographs reprinted with permission of Dept. of Government Services and Lands,
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.


	Map Room, Queen Elizabeth II Library Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's, Newfoundland Canada A1B 3Y1 telephone: (709) 864-8892 fax: (709) 864-2153

November 5, 2010