In this case, "2023" refers to when I downloaded them from the USGS. It is what they currently offer with the National Map, but is older than 2023. The source for these is the NAIP (National Agriculture Imagery Program). They have a complicated rotating schedule of photographing different counties on different years. I was going to directly download the newest aerials from NAIP, but it's a hopelessly confusing jigsaw puzzle of partial maps every year. So I just used these because they were already compiled by the USGS. They only go up to zoom level 16 however, so you won't get a lot of detail. But I wanted my own aerial imagery to use with the terrain viewer. It's about 80gb of data, and that would be 400gb if I went up to level 17. Can't devote that much expensive disk space to aerials!
I was comparing some details in the Pines just yesterday, and they seem to match the NJGIN/NAIP 2019 aerials although the colors have been processed differently. Other locations might be older or newer.
