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Seafloor Characterization of the U.S. Caribbean |
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Data:
All users are strongly encouraged to download the technical reports (such as the Data Acquisition and Processing Report) in conjunction with any data for a better understanding of the project details, and to guide them in determining appropriate data uses.
Benthic Habitat Viewer Database »
*The online Benthic Habitat Viewer (BHV) database provides **access to over 9,000 underwater seafloor images collected to support comprehensive seafloor characterization of the U.S. Caribbean (Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands). The database provides access to a library of underwater imagery, accompanied by information on image location, biological inventory, benthic habitat characterization, geomorphological structure, and seafloor terrain characteristics (i.e., bathymetry, slope, and rugosity). The database will continue to be updated with additional imagery as collected from future missions.
Benthic Habitat Camera System »
All data products are organized by individual project area. Some data products are also available as unified datasets encompassing the data from each of the mission years. The original full resolution datasets are in raw GSF, XTF, ALL and processed HDCS formats (along with the appropriate correctors), and are archived at the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). The following deliverables are available for download in zip format:
Mission 2008
Multibeam data were collected with a hull-mounted Simrad EM 1002 multibeam SONAR and were processed by a NOAA contractor using CARIS HIPS/SIPS v.6.1 software. Data will be reduced to mean lower low water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS and will be in UTM zones 19, datum NAD83.
Available bathymetry products include ASCII XYZ text files (comma delimited with easting, northing, and depth in meters values), ESRI Grids, and georeferenced TIFF images (color by depth, sun illuminated with azimuth option 1, sun illuminated with azimuth option 2).
| Project Area | Resolution (in meters) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASCII XYZ text files: | ESRI Grids: | TIFF Images (Georeferenced): | ||
| Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 1 | Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 2 | |||
| 2004/2005/2006/2007/2008 Unified - All Project Areas | n/a | 9 | n/a | n/a |
| 2008 Unified - All Project Areas | n/a | 9 | n/a | n/a |
| Tourmaline Bank | 3, 6, 9 Combined | 3, 6, 9 Combined | 9 | 9 |
| Mona Island (north) | 3, 6, 9 Combined | 3, 6, 9 Combined | 9 | 9 |
Backscatter was collected with a hull-mounted Simrad EM 1002 multibeam SONAR. The data were corrected for geometric and radiometric distortions using Geocoder 3.2.1. In particular, the following corrections were applied when artifacts were evident: AVG Trend, TX Power and RX Gain, Area Correction, Spreading, Slant-Range and Beam Pattern. The final mosaics were exported in dBs (decibels) as ESRI GRIDs for use in a GIS.
| Project Area | Resolution (in meters) |
|---|---|
| Tourmaline Bank | 3 |
| Mona Island (north) | 3 |
ESRI grids of multibeam bathymetry were used to calculate derived products, such as ESRI grids of bathymetric slope and rugosity. Slope in degrees was calculated using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension, while rugosity was generated by the ArcGIS toolset called the Benthic Terrain Modeler (BTM). More detailed information is available in the metadata of individual files.
| Project Area | Resolution (in meters) | |
|---|---|---|
| Rugosity | Slope | |
| 2004/2005/2006/2007/2008 Unified - All Project Areas | 10 | 10 |
| 2008 Unified - All Project Areas | 9 | 9 |
| Tourmaline Bank | 3, 6, 9, Combined | 3, 6, 9, Combined |
| Mona Island (north) | 3, 6, 9, Combined | 3, 6, 9, Combined |
An underwater drop camera, equipped with GPS, lasers, a video camera and a high resolution still camera, was used to acquire seafloor groundtruthing observations. The resulting video data was manually classified by Biogeography Branch scientists into structure, substrate, and biotic cover categories, as well as degree of vertical relief. The classified habitat data is available as an ESRI shapefile in UTM projection, and the original video is available in Windows media video format (.wmv). The point shapefile contains the individual data points and associated habitat information, while the line shapefile merely reflects transect location and contains no individual data points.
| Shapefile Type | File name |
|---|---|
| Point | NF-08-04_ROV_Transects_Points |
| Line | Available Soon |
Mission 2007
Multibeam data was collected with a hull-mounted Simrad EM 1002 and a hull-mounted Reson 8124 multibeam SONAR and were processed by a NOAA contractor using CARIS HIPS/SIPS v.6.1 software. Data will be reduced to mean lower low water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS and will be in UTM zones 19, datum NAD83.
Available bathymetry products include ESRI Grids, and georeferenced TIFF images (sun illuminated with azimuth option 1, sun illuminated with azimuth option 2).
| Project Area | Resolution (in meters) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASCII XYZ text files: | ESRI Grids: | TIFF Images (Georeferenced): | ||
| Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 1 | Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 2 | |||
| 2004/2005/2006/2007 Unified - All Project Areas | n/a | 10 | n/a | n/a |
| 2007 Unified - All Project Areas | 10 | 10 | n/a | n/a |
| Bajo de Cico | 3, 5, 10 | 3, 5, 10 | 3, 5, 10 | 3, 5, 10 |
| Abrir La Sierra Bank | 3, 5, 10 | 3, 5, 10 | 3, 5, 10 | 3, 5, 10 |
| Mona Island (south) | 3, 5, 10 | 3, 5, 10 | 3, 5, 10 | 3, 5, 10 |
Backscatter was collected with a hull-mounted Simrad EM 1002 and a hull-mounted Reson 8124 multibeam SONAR. The data (in Simrad and XTF formats) were corrected for geometric and radiometric distortions using Geocoder 3.0. In particular, the following corrections were applied when artifacts were evident: AVG Trend, TX Power and RX Gain, Area Correction, Spreading, Slant-Range and Beam Pattern. The final mosaics were exported in dBs (decibels) as geotiffs for use in a GIS.
| Project Area | Resolution (in meters) |
|---|---|
| Bajo de Cico | 1 |
| Abrir La Sierra Bank | 1 |
| Mona Island (south) | 2 |
ESRI grids of multibeam bathymetry were used to calculate derived products, such as ESRI grids of bathymetric slope and rugosity. Slope in degrees was calculated using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension, while rugosity was generated by the ArcGIS toolset called the Benthic Terrain Modeler (BTM). More detailed information is available in the metadata of individual files.
| Project Area | Resolution (in meters) | |
|---|---|---|
| Rugosity | Slope | |
| 2004/2005/2006/2007 Unified - All Project Areas | 10 | 10 |
| 2007 Unified - All Project Areas | 10 | 10 |
| Bajo de Cico | 3, 5, 10 | 3, 5, 10 |
| Abrir La Sierra Bank | 3, 5, 10 | 3, 5, 10 |
| Mona Island (south) | 3, 5, 10 | 3, 5, 10 |
An underwater drop camera, equipped with GPS, lasers, a video camera and a high resolution still camera, was used to acquire seafloor groundtruthing observations. The resulting video data was manually classified by Biogeography Branch scientists into structure, substrate, and biotic cover categories, as well as degree of vertical relief. The classified habitat data is available as an ESRI shapefile in UTM projection, and the original video is available in Windows media video format (.wmv). The point shapefile contains the individual data points and associated habitat information, while the line shapefile merely reflects transect location and contains no individual data points.
| Shapefile Type | File name |
|---|---|
| Point | NF-07-06_ROV_Transects_Points.zip |
| Line | Available Soon |
Mission 2006
Multibeam data was collected with a hull-mounted Simrad EM 1002 multibeam sonar and will be processed by a NOAA contractor using CARIS HIPS/SIPS v.6.0 software. Data will be reduced to mean lower low water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS and will be in UTM zones 19 and 20, datum NAD83.
Available bathymetry products include ASCII XYZ text files (comma delimited with easting, northing, and depth in meters values), ESRI Grids, and georeferenced TIFF images (color by depth, sun illuminated with azimuth option 1, sun illuminated with azimuth option 2).
| Project Area | Resolution (in meters) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASCII XYZ text files: | ESRI Grids: | TIFF Images (Georeferenced): | ||||
| Color By Depth | Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 45 | Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 315 | Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 225 | |||
| 2004/2005/2006 Unified- All Project Areas | 10 | 10 | 10 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2006 Unified - All Project Areas | 10 | 10 | 10 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Buck Island- NPS Monument (St. Croix) | 3 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 10 | n/a |
| La Parguera (Puerto Rico) | 3 | 3 | 2 | 10 | n/a | 10 |
Backscatter was collected with a hull-mounted Simrad EM 1002 multibeam sonar. The data (in Simrad format) were corrected for geometric and radiometric distortions using Geocoder 2.8. In particular, the following corrections were applied when artifacts were evident: AVG Trend, TX Power and RX Gain, Area Correction, Spreading, Slant-Range and Beam Pattern. The final mosaics were exported in dBs (decibels) as geotiffs for use in a GIS.
| Project Area | Resolution (in meters) |
|---|---|
| 2006 Unified- All Project Areas | 3 |
| Buck Island- NPS Monument (St. Croix) | 3 |
| La Parguera ( Puerto Rico) | 3 |
ESRI grids of multibeam bathymetry were used to calculate derived products, such as ESRI grids of bathymetric slope and rugosity. Slope in degrees was calculated using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension, while rugosity was generated by the ArcGIS toolset known as the Benthic Terrain Modeler (BTM). More detailed information is available in the metadata of individual files.
| Project Area | Resolution (in meters) | |
|---|---|---|
| Rugosity | Slope | |
| 2004/2005/2006 Unified- All Project Areas | 10 | 10 |
| 2006 Unified - All Project Areas | 10 | 10 |
| Buck Island- NPS Monument (St. Croix) | 3 | 3 |
| La Parguera (Puerto Rico) | 3 | 3 |
A Seaeye Falcon Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), run by SeaVision Marine Services, with an attached underwater video camera was used to acquire seafloor groundtruthing observations. The resulting video data was manually classified by Biogeography Branch scientists into structure, substrate, and biotic cover categories, as well as degree of vertical relief. The classified habitat data is available as an ESRI shapefile in UTM projection, and the original video is available in Windows media video format (.wmv). The point shapefile contains the individual data points and associated habitat information, while the line shapefile merely reflects transect location and contains no individual data points. For a full description of the video classification methodology, download this summary of 2006 ROV Video Classification Methodology.
| Shapefile Type | File name |
|---|---|
| Point | NF-06-03_ROV_Transects_Points |
| Line | NF-06-03_ROV_Transects_Lines |
These images were collected in southwestern Puerto Rico between 4/7/2006 and 5/15/2006 using a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) ADS Mk II Airborne System. The 900 Hertz (1064 nm) A Nd: Yag laser acquired 4x4 meter spot spacing and 200% seabed coverage. In total, 265 square nautical miles of LiDAR were collected between -20 m (topographic) and up to 50 m (depth). The spatial resolution of the bathymetric surface is 4 meters. The spatial resolution of the reflectivity surface is 5 meters. Please see the DAPR, Reflectivity Descriptive Report and the dataset metadata files for more details.
| Project Area | Resolution (in meters) | |
|---|---|---|
| Bathymetry | Reflectivity | |
| Southwest Puerto Rico | 4 | 5 |
Mission 2005
Multibeam data was collected with a pole-mounted Reson 8101 multibeam sonar and processed by a NOAA contractor using CARIS HIPS/SIPS v.5.4 software. Data has been reduced to mean lower low water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS and are in UTM zone 20, datum WGS84.
Available bathymetry products include ASCII XYZ text files (comma delimited with easting, northing, and depth in meters values), ESRI Grids, and georeferenced TIFF images (color by depth, sun illuminated with azimuth 45, sun illuminated with azimuth 135).
| Project Area | Resolution (in meters) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASCII XYZ text files |
ESRI Grids | TIFF Images (Georeferenced) | |||
| Color By Depth | Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 45 | Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 135 | |||
| 2004/2005 Unified- All Project Areas | 5 | 5 | 5 | n/a | n/a |
| 2005 Unified - All Project Areas | 2 | 2 | 2 | n/a | n/a |
| NPS Inshore (St. John) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| NPS Offshore (St. John) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Buck Channel (St. Croix) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Salt River (St. Croix) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Grammanik Bank | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Mid Shelf Reef (MSR) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Backscatter was collected with a pole-mounted Reson 8101 multibeam sonar. The data (in Generic Sensor Format) from Grammanik Bank and the Mid Shelf Reef were processed by the University of Hawaii's Hawaii Mapping Research Group (HMRG) using the HAWAII MR1 Sidescan Sonar Software Suite. The data were corrected for angle varying gain, transmit power and pulse width. Electronic and acoustic noise, such as striping due to across track variations in amplitude and speckling due to transducer motion, were removed.
The data (in Generic Sensor Format) from Salt River and the Buck Channel, St. Croix were corrected for geometric and radiometric distortions using Geocoder 2.8. In particular, the following corrections were applied when artifacts were evident: AVG Trend, TX Power and RX Gain, Area Correction, Spreading, Slant-Range and Beam Pattern. The final mosaics for all areas were exported as geotiffs for use in a GIS.
| Project Area | Resolution (in meters) |
|---|---|
| Buck Channel (St. Croix) | 1 |
| Salt River (St. Croix) | 2 |
| Grammanik Bank (East) | .5 |
| Grammanik Bank (West) | .5 |
| Mid Shelf Reef | .5 |
| NPS Inshore (St. John) | 1 |
| NPS Offshore (St. John) | 1 |
ESRI grids of multibeam bathymetry were used to calculate derived products, such as ESRI grids of bathymetric slope and rugosity. Slope in degrees was calculated using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension, while rugosity was generated by the ArcGIS toolset known as the Benthic Terrain Modeler (BTM). More detailed information is available in the metadata of individual files.
| Project Area | Resolution (in meters) | |
|---|---|---|
| Rugosity | Slope | |
| 2005 Unified - All Project Areas | 5 | 5 |
| NPS Inshore ( St. John ) | 1 | 1 |
| NPS Offshore ( St. John ) | 2 | 2 |
| Buck Channel ( St. Croix ) | 1 | 1 |
| Salt River ( St. Croix ) | 2 | 2 |
| Grammanik Bank | 2 | 2 |
| Mid Shelf Reef (MSR) | 1 | 1 |
A Phantom S2 Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) with an attached underwater video camera was used to acquire seafloor groundtruthing observations. The resulting video data was manually classified by Biogeography Branch scientists, at 10 second interval test locations, into structure, substrate, and biotic cover categories, as well as degree of vertical relief. The classified habitat data is available as an ESRI shapefile in UTM projection. The point shapefile contains the individual data points and associated habitat information, while the line shapefile merely reflects transect location and contains no individual data points. For a full description of the video classification methodology, download this summary of 2005 ROV Video Classification Methodology.
| Shapefile Type | File name |
|---|---|
| Point | NF-05-05_ROV_Transects_Points |
| Line | NF-05-05_ROV_Transects_Lines |
Mission 2004
All data products are organized by island project area -St. Croix ( Buck Island ), St. Thomas , and St. John . The original full resolution dataset in raw XTF format, along with the appropriate correctors, is archived at the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC).The following deliverables are available for download in zip format:
Multibeam data was collected with a pole-mounted Reson 8101 multibeam sonar and processed by a NOAA contractor using CARIS HIPS/SIPS v.5.4 software. Data has been reduced to mean lower low water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS and are in UTM zone 20, datum WGS84. There is an irregular artifact (averaging 0.5m high) in the dataset.
Available bathymetry products include ASCII XYZ text files (comma delimited with values of easting, northing, and depth in meters), ESRI Grids, georeferenced TIFF images (color by depth, sun illuminated with azimuth 225, sun illuminated with azimuth 315), and non-georeferenced JPEG sample graphics. Due to the large size of the St. John project area, the 1m resolution XYZ files and ESRI Grids for St. John have been subdivided into four smaller areas which must be downloaded separately. The component project areas, named 1-4 from west to east, are shown together in this Overview graphic for reference.
| Project Area | Resolution (in meters) | Bathymetry DTM | Backscatter Mosaic | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASCII XYZ text files: | ESRI Grids: | TIFF Images (Georeferenced): | Sample JPEG Graphics (Non-georeferenced): | ||||
| Color by Depth | Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 225 |
Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 315 |
|||||
| St. Croix | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | STC Bathymetry Sample | STC Backscatter Sample |
| St. John | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | STJ Bathymetry Sample | STJ Backscatter Sample |
| St. Thomas | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | STT Bathymetry Sample | STT Backscatter Sample |
Backscatter was collected with a pole-mounted Reson 8101 multibeam sonar. The data (in Generic Sensor Format) were corrected for geometric and radiometric distortions using Geocoder 2.7. In particular, the following corrections were applied when artifacts were evident: AVG Trend, TX Power and RX Gain, Area Correction, Spreading, Slant-Range and Beam Pattern. The final mosaics were exported as geotiffs for use in a GIS.
| Project Area | Resolution (in meters) |
|---|---|
| St. Croix | 0.5 |
| St. John | 0.5 |
| St. Thomas | 0.5 |
ESRI grids of multibeam bathymetry were used to calculate derived products, such as ESRI grids of bathymetric slope and rugosity. Slope in degrees was calculated using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension, while rugosity was generated by the ArcGIS toolset known as the Benthic Terrain Modeler (BTM). More detailed information is available in the metadata of individual files.
| Project Area | Resolution (in meters) | |
|---|---|---|
| Rugosity: | Slope: | |
| 2004 Unified- All Project Areas | n/a | n/a |
| St. Croix | 1 | 1 |
| St. John | 1 | 1 |
| St. Thomas | 1 | 1 |
A Phantom S2 Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) with an attached underwater video camera was used to acquire seafloor groundtruthing observations. The resulting video data was manually classified by Biogeography Branch scientists, at 10 second interval test locations, into structure, substrate, and biotic cover categories, as well as degree of vertical relief. The classified habitat data is available as an ESRI shapefile in UTM projection. The point shapefile contains the individual data points and associated habitat information, while the line shapefile merely reflects transect location and contains no individual data points. For a full description of the video classification methodology, download this summary of 2005 ROV Video Classification Methodology.
| Shapefile Type | File name |
|---|---|
| Point | NF-05-05_ROV_Transects_Points |
| Line | NF-05-05_ROV_Transects_Lines |
