NOAA TIFF Image- 0.5 meter Backscatter Mosaic of Mid Shelf Reef (St. Thomas), US Virgin Islands, Project NF-05-05, 2005, UTM 20 NAD83

This image represents a 0.5 meter resolution backscatter mosaic of the Mid Shelf Reef south of St. Thomas, US Virgin IslandsNOAA's NOS/NCCOS/CCMA Biogeography Team, in collaboration with NOAA vessel Nancy Foster and territory, federal, and private sector partners, acquired multibeam bathymetry data in the US Virgin Islands from 2/1/05 to 2/12/05. 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 backscatter component of the bathymetry data were processed by the Hawaii Mapping Research Group (HMRG), University of Hawaii 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 project was conducted to meet IHO Order 1 and 2 accuracy standards, dependant on the project area and depth. All users should individually evaluate the suitability of this data according to their own needs and standards.

This multibeam data was collected as IOCM (Integrated Ocean and Coastal Mapping) project NF-05-05 during the second year of an ongoing NOAA scientific research mission in the US Caribbean to characterize nearshore coral reef habitats at depths down to 300 meters. 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 2005 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-05-05.

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 9.1.0.722

See Data Acquisition and Processing Report (DAPR) for NF-05-05.

See Data Acquisition and Processing Report (DAPR) for NF-05-05.

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 1 and 2 accuracy standards, dependant on project area and depth, all users should independently analyze the dataset according to their own needs and standards to determine data usability.