Data Management Plan

This project is a cooperative effort among the National Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment; the University of Hawaii; and Analytical Laboratories of Hawaii, LLC. The goal of the work was to develop coral reef mapping methods and compare benthic habitat maps generated by photointerpreting georeferenced color aerial photography, hyperspectral and IKONOS satellite imagery. The enhanced spectral resolution of hyperspectral and control of bandwidths of multispectral data yield an advantage over color aerial photography particularly when coral health and time series analysis of coral reef community structure are of interest. Depending on the type of instrument, a spectral imaging system can be utilized to see multiple colors from ultraviolet through the far infrared range. The AURORA hyperspectral imaging system collected 72 ten nm bands in the visible and near infrared spectral range with a 3 meter pixel resolution. The data was processed to select band widths, which optimized feature detection in shallow and deep water. Photointerpreters can accurately and reliably delineate boundaries of features in the imagery as they appear on the computer monitor using a software interface such as the Habitat Digitizer.

Process Steps:

• 2000-06-20 00:00:00 - The hyperspectral image data were collected using the AURORA Hyperspectral Imaging data acquisition system (Advanced Power Technologies, Inc). Navigation data were incorporated using the Applanix inertial navigation system. The imaging system was used to collect 72 ten nm bands in the visible and near infrared spectral range at a three meter pixel resolution. Process Date Range is 20000516 - 20000620
• 2002-01-01 00:00:00 - The raw data were processed by the AnalyticalLaboratories of Hawaii, LLC using Research Systems, Inc. ENVI software. Band combinations were selected which optimized benthichabitat information in shallow and deep water and the scenes wereconverted into RGB composites. The hyperspectral images weregeoreferenced and mosaiced using Scene Stitcher, a stand-alonesoftware program produced by Advanced Power Technologies, Inc.

A flightline containing hyperspectral imagery will have two separate image files representing a subset of 6 bands from the 72 original bands collected. File naming convention is as follows 'flightline number-date(s) acquired-hyperspectral or airphoto imagery'. Hyperspectral flightline files will end in either 272217 or 332211 representing the band number in the respective file. Band numbers equate to the following spectral wavelength in nanometers: 27 - 605.51991, 22 - 556.918030, 17 - 508.319000, 33 - 663.835022, and 11 - 450.001007. These approximate true-color band combinations were chosen to highlight shallow (272217) and deep (332211) water benthic features. Note that the resolution of the georeferenced imagery has been degraded significantly to reduce file size and facilitate internet viewing.;