NATIONAL AGRICULTURE IMAGERY PROGRAM (NAIP)
The NAIP program began as a pilot in 2001, with an objective to possibly replace the 35 mm Compliance Imagery program.  In addition to being used in the Compliance Program, on a 3 to 5 year cycle, the imagery will become the FSA GIS replacement image base.  
NAIP imagery is delivered in 1 Meter or 2 Meter resolution, in Natural Color or Color Infrared, and flown while the crops are growing.    
Compressed County Mosaics (CCM’s), as well as the full resolution Quarter Quadrangle images are available.  For those areas acquired using analog camera systems, the original film is available for making photographic and scan products.                                                               
(from http://www.apfo.usda.gov/orderingimagery.html)
      Abstract:
        This data set contains imagery from the National Agricultural
        Imagery Program (NAIP).  NAIP acquires digital ortho imagery
        during the agricultural growing seasons in the continental U.S..
        A primary goal of the NAIP program is to enable availabilty of
        ortho imagery within a year of acquisition. NAIP provides two
        main products: 1 meter ground sample distance (GSD) ortho
        imagery rectified to a horizontal accuracy of within +/- 3
        meters of reference digital ortho quarter quads (DOQQS) from
        the National Digital Ortho Program (NDOP); and, 2 meter GSD
        ortho imagery rectified to within +/- 20 meters of reference
        DOQQs.  The tiling format of NAIP imagery is based on a 3.75'
        x 3.75' quarter quadrangle with a 360 meter buffer on all four
        sides.  NAIP quarter quads are rectified to the UTM coordinate
        system NAD83.  NAIP imagery can obtain as much as 10% cloud
        cover per tile.
        This file was generated by compressing mosaicked digital
        quarter quadrangle image tiles scanned from natural color  
        positive or color infrared positive aerial film into a
        single mosaic.  The mosaic may cover all or portions of an
        individual county. MrSid software compression, with mosaic
        option, was used to create the final product.
        Each individual image tile within the mosaic covers a 3.75
        X 3.75 minute quarter quadrangle plus a 360 meter buffer on
        all four sides.  All individual tile images and the resulting
        mosaic were rectified to the UTM coordinate system, NAD 83 and
        cast into a single predetermined UTM zone.
        All digital products and the underlying film images were 
        produced through the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP).
        The primary purpose of the mosaicked digital ortho quarter quads
        is to support USDA Field Service Centers located in counties
        throughout the United States.
      Purpose:
          The 2 meter GSD NAIP is intended as a source for current
          digital imagery in USDA Field Service Center
          GIS and for other programs that require imagery
          acquired during the agricultural growing season
          where high horizontal accuracy is not required.
     Time_Period_of_Content:
       Time_Period_Information:
           	Single_Date/Time:
              Calendar_Date: 2003