Data Management Plan

This dataset contains an ESRI Geotiff with 1 meter cell size representing the bathymetry of the south shore of St. Thomas, 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. The processed CARIS data was used to generate a CARIS BASE surface based on swath angle with footprint size 3*3. An ASCII XYZ file was exported from the BASE surface and opened in ESRI ArcMap 9 as an XY event. Then the ArcToolbox conversion tool 'Feature to Raster', with cell size 1, was used to generate the final ESRI Geotiff. 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.

Process Steps:

• 2004-03-01 00:00:00 - For this project, the Chief Scientist was NOAA/NOS/NCCOS/CCMA's Dr. Mark Monaco and the Lead Hydrographer was NOAA/NOS/OCS/HSD/PHB's Physical Scientist Sean Rooney. Data was collected aboard the NOAA ship Nancy Foster from 2/18/04 to 3/5/04, as project number NF-04-06-VI. Multibeam data was acquired in XTF format with a pole-mounted Reson 8101 ER multibeam echosounder (240 kHz), with options 033 and 040. Triton-Elics ISIS 6.20 software was used to interface with the Reson system. Line spacing for acquisition was typically three times the water depth, giving 100% bottom coverage, and data was retained out to 70 degrees from nadir. Heave, roll, pitch and heading correctors were collected using an Ixsea Octans gyrocompass and integrated motion sensor. Sound velocity profiles were acquired with a Seabird Electronics SeaCat SBE19 CTD profiler and processed using Velociwin 8.40 (NOS HSTP product), then concatenated. Positioning was obtained using a Trimble DSM212L GPS receiver with differential correctors from U.S. Coast Guard beacon Isabel, PR. Data was reduced to Mean Lower-Low Water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS, based on National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) primary tide stations at Charlotte Amalie, VI (9751639) and Lime Tree Bay, VI (9751401). | Source Produced: NF-04-06 XTF Raw Multibeam Data (Citation: NF-04-06 XTF Raw Multibeam Data)
• 2004-08-01 00:00:00 - SWMB data in XTF format were converted and processed using CARIS HIPS v5.3 and 5.4 software, resulting in a CARIS HDCS format dataset with all correctors applied. Attitude and SWMB data was cleaned of fliers, and SWMB data was reviewed in subset mode by a NOAA contractor.Process Date Range is 200403 - 200408 | Source Produced: NF-04-06 HDCS Processed Multibeam Data (Citation: NF-04-06 XTF Raw Multibeam Data)
• 2004-11-01 00:00:00 - After being submitted to CCMA by the contractor, CARIS HIPS v5.4 was used to generate a 1m resolution CARIS BASE surface (similar to a DTM), based on swath angle and maximum footprint size 3*3 pixels, from the processed HDCS data. Then CARIS export tool "BASE Surface to ASCII" was used to export a comma delimited ASCII XYZ file, with Easting, Northing, and Depth values, using ground position units (WGS84 UTM zone 20) and precision 3. | Source Produced: NF-04-06 CARIS BASE Surface (Citation: NF-04-06 HDCS Processed Multibeam Data)
• 2004-11-01 00:00:00 - The 1m ASCII XYZ file was opened in ArcMap 9 and the 'Display XY Data' option was used to add the XY data as an event with spatial reference WGS84 UTM zone 20. Finally, the ArcToolbox 9 conversion tool "Feature to Raster" was then used to convert the XY event into an ESRI Geotiff with output cell size 1 meter, based on the depth field Z. | Source Produced: NF04_STT_SouthBank_Bathy_1m.tif (Citation: NF-04-06 CARIS BASE Surface)

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