NOAA TIFF Image - 1 m Backscatter Mosaic of the Virgin Passage and the St. John Shelf, U.S. Virgin Islands, Project NF-10-03, 2010, UTM 20 WGS84

This image represents a 1 meter resolution backscatter mosaic of the Virgin Passage in the US Virgin Islands. NOAA'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 March 18 2010 to April 06 2010. Data was acquired with a hull-mounted Reson 7125 Kongsberg Simrad EM 1002 multibeam echosounder (400 kHz) and processed by a NOAA contractor using CARIS HIPS 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 was geometrically and radiometrically corrected using Hypack 2010 Geocoder software. Acoustic backscatter mosaics are ostensibly an important piece of information when characterizing surficial seafloor features and delineating benthic habitat.The project was conducted to meet IHO Order 1 and 2 accuracy standards, dependent 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-10-03 during the seventh year of an ongoing NOAA scientific research mission in the US Caribbean to characterize midshelf and deep water coral reef habitats at depths down to 1,000 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 2010 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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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 10.0

See Data Acquisition and Processing Report (DAPR) for NF-10-03.

See Data Acquisition and Processing Report (DAPR) for NF-10-03.

This ESRI Geotiff is sourced from a gridded dataset. The original full-resolution multibeam data was used to create a downsampled uniform-resolution CARIS BASE (Bathymetry Associated with Statistical Error) surface grid with a best depth component. The downsampled grid nodes from that depth surface were then exported and used to generate the ESRI Geotiff. Some positional shifts may have occurred between the original data points and the transformed grid.

While the project was conducted to meet IHO Order 1 and 2 accuracy standards, dependent on project area and depth, all users should independently analyze the dataset according to their own needs and standards to determine data usability.