Geysers are localized hydrothermal vents that periodically erupt with gas bubbles at the surface. Understanding their distribution, dynamics, and conduit geometry is critical to understand the fluid and heat transfer through the crust. To explore this at the Geysir geothermal field in Iceland, we analyzed the spatial distribution of thermal features using high-resolution UAV-based optical and infrared cameras. Based on this, Walter et al. (2020) identified 364 distinct thermal spots. Here we release the high-resolution drone orthomosaic dataset at the Geysir geothermal field, Iceland.

The field campaign and subsequent findings are derived from UAV data collected between July 27th and August 5th, 2016. We used lightweight cameras mounted on a modified DJI Matrice 100 quadcopter drone, allowing flight durations of over 30 min and simultaneous use of optical and thermal cameras. Flight control was based on GPS, with live video feed to the operator and predefined flight paths. Overflights were conducted at different times to optimize image quality: daylight flights at 5:00 local time for optimal contrast for the optical camera, and cold night flights at 3:00 local time for the infrared camera. Altitudes were 120 meters above ground to ensure comprehensive image coverage. The optical camera, a DJI Zenmuse X5R, captured 16-megapixel images at 2 frames per second, with each image geotagged by GPS. The thermal camera, a FLIR Tau 2, had a fully radiometric resolution of 640 × 512 pixels and a spectral band of 7.5-13.5 μm, with GPS geotagging for each image.