From 1978 to 1986, a joint effort between state and federal agencies produced tens of thousands of high-altitude aerial photographs covering nearly all of Alaska. These images captured a detailed snapshot of the state’s landscapes during a critical period of environmental and infrastructure development. However, because the photos lacked consistent geographic reference, they were difficult to use for research or mapping.

This project transformed nearly 60,000 of those historic images into a public, map-ready dataset by assigning accurate locations to each photo. One major challenge was that while the corner coordinates for each photo were known, their arrangement was not. To solve this, the images were aligned with the expected flight paths of the planes that captured them, allowing the correct orientation to be inferred.

The result is a freely available dataset that enables new insights into Alaska’s changing environment—from glacier movement to wildfire recovery and land use planning. These images offer scientists, conservationists, and the public a powerful resource for understanding how Alaska’s landscapes have evolved over the past several decades.