Who needs a DOQ?
Not everybody, of course. These images are useful for professional purposes in automated mapping programs, geographic information systems, and some civil engineering applications. Because of the USGS-Microsoft joint research project, it is possible to look at a low-resolution version of each of the DOQ’s in the TerraServer database and even to download and print it. If, however, you want the higher quality, full-resolution DOQ, the clearest available image, you’ll be disappointed unless you have some sophisticated viewing software to look at it; DOQ’s don’t come packaged with viewers. They’re big files, too– 55 megabytes on average for a black-and-white version, and nearly three times that size for color-infrared.
