NOAA TIFF Graphic- 0.5m Backscatter Mosaic of St. Croix (Buck Island), US Virgin Islands, 2004

This geotiff represents a 0.5 meter resolution backscatter mosaic of the north shore of Buck Island, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands.NOAA's NOS/NCCOS/CCMA Biogeography Team and NOAA/NOS/OCS/HSD personnel, in collaboration with NOAA vessel Nancy Foster and territory, federal, and private sector partners, acquired multibeam bathymetry data in the US Virgin Islands from 2/18/04 to 3/5/04. Data was acquired with a pole-mounted Reson 8101 ER multibeam echosounder (240 kHz) and processed by a NOAA contractor using CARIS HIPS v5.4 software. Data has all correctors applied (attitude, sound velocity) and has been reduced to mean lower low water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS. Data is in UTM zone 20 north, datum WGS84. Within CARIS, each line of backscatter data was evaluated for bottom tracking and was slant-range corrected. Data was not corrected for gain or transmit power artifacts. Backscatter mosaics were then created using the CARIS shine-through option. Finally, a georeferenced imagery file was exported from the mosaic.While the project was conducted to meet IHO Order 2 accuracy standards, there is a roll artifact (averaging 0.5m high) in the dataset that the user should take into consideration when performing any analysis.

This multibeam data product was collected as project NF-04-06 during year one of a two-year NOAA scientific research mission in the US Virgin Islands to characterize nearshore coral reef habitats. The mission purpose is to better understand the resources within the surveyed reef habitats, and ultimately develop species utilization models linking physical habitats with biological information. The multibeam backscatter, multibeam bathymetry, and ground truth video footage collected during the 2004 mission will be used internally to characterize sea floor topography and to create benthic habitat maps, helping NOAA meet its mapping commitment to the US Coral Reef Task Force. The resulting publicly-distributed data is also a contribution to the greater scientific community interested in the USVI seafloor.

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None Information about Depth Resolution: See Data Acquisition and Processing Report (DAPR) for cruise number NF-04-06

These data were prepared by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, make any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in this report, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference therein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. Any views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. Although all data have been used by NOAA, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by NOAA as to the accuracy of the data and/or related materials. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by NOAA in the use of these data or related materials.

Click on link from project page to NCEI archive and download zip file.;

Please cite any use of this data.

Note: NOT TO BE USED FOR NAVIGATION.These data were prepared by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, make any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in this report, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference therein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. Any views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. Although all data have been used by NOAA, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by NOAA as to the accuracy of the data and/or related materials. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by NOAA in the use of these data or related materials.

Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 2; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.0.0.535

See Data Acquisition and Processing Report (DAPR) for NF-04-06. Also titled Data Acquisition and Certification Report for cruise number NF-04-06-VI.

See Data Acquisition and Processing Report (DAPR) for NF-04-06. Also titled Data Acquisition and Certification Report for cruise number NF-04-06-VI.

This Backscatter GeoTIFF is sourced from the original full-resolution multibeam data that was used to create a down sampled uniform-resolution backscatter grid. The down sampled grid nodes from that backscatter surface were then exported and used to generate the ESRI GeoTIFF. Some minor positional shifts may have occurred between the original data points and the transformed GeoTIFF.

While the project was conducted to meet IHO Order 2 accuracy standards, there is a serious roll artifact (averaging 0.5m high) in the dataset that the user should take into consideration when performing any analysis. This artifact is likely the result of small errors is the measurement of sensor offsets, combined with strumming motion from the pole on which the sonar was mounted.