2011 NOAA Bathymetric Lidar: U.S. Virgin Islands - St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix (Salt River Bay, Buck Island)

This data represents a LiDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) gridded bathymetric surface and a gridded relative seafloor reflectivity surface (incorporated into the las format as intensity) for an area of shallow seabed:

1. Surrounding St. Thomas and St. John (STT/STJ): 3m x 3m grid

2. Mouth of Salt River Bay (SARI) in St. Croix: 5m x 5m grid

3. Buck Island Reef National Monument (BUIS) in St. Croix: 3m x 3m grid

Fugro LADS, in collaboration with NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS), National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA), Biogeography Branch, the University of New Hampshire and the National Park Service, acquired bathymetry, relative seafloor reflectivity and hyperspectral imagery in St. Thomas and St. John on thirteen separate dates between 1/29/2011 to 2/28/2011 and in St. Croix (SARI and BUIS) on 2/21/2011 and 2/22/2011.

1. STT/STJ

Bathymetry and reflectivity data were acquired using a LADS (Laser Airborne Depth Sounder) Mark II Airborne System from altitudes between 1,200 and 2,200ft at ground speeds between 140 and 210 knots. The 900 Hertz Nd: YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet) laser (1064 nm) acquired 3x3 meter spot spacing

and 200% seabed coverage. For STT/STJ, 168.1 square kilometers of LiDAR were collected between 0 m and 40 m in depth. Data was flown for charting. This data met IHO Order 1 standards.

2. SARI

Bathymetry and reflectivity data were acquired using a LADS (Laser Airborne Depth Sounder) Mark II Airborne System from altitudes between 1,200 and 2,200ft at ground speeds between 140 and 175 knots. The 900 Hertz Nd: YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet) laser (1064 nm) acquired 5x5 meter spot spacing

and 200% seabed coverage. For SARI, 1.62 square kilometers of LiDAR were collected between 0 m and 34 m in depth. This data was collected for research, not charting. It was collected using the same acquistion parameters as STT/STJ, but its uncertainties were not quantified. As such, it is not known if this data meets IHO Order 1 standards.

3. BUIS

Bathymetry and reflectivity data were acquired using a LADS (Laser Airborne Depth Sounder) Mark II Airborne System from altitudes between 1,200 and 2,200ft at ground speeds between 140 and 175 knots. The 900 Hertz Nd: YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet) laser (1064 nm) acquired 3x3 meter spot spacing

and 200% seabed coverage. For BUIS, 35.9 square kilometers of LiDAR were collected between 0 m and 49 m in depth. This data was collected for research, not charting. It was collected using the same acquistion parameters as STT/STJ, but its uncertainties were not quantified. As such, it is not known if this data meets IHO Order 1 standards.

The data received from NCCOS were in GEOTIFF format for both the lidar and seafloor reflectivity. The NOAA Office for Coastal Management converted these two data sets to text format and then combined them into one text file based on x and y. The text file was then converted to las format, where the seafloor reflectivity is represented as intensity. The data's horizontal coordinate system was NAD83 UTM 20 North, and depth values were collected in meters referenced to Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) depths. Upon receipt of the data, the NOAA Office for Coastal Management converted the data to geographic coordinates and ellipsoid heights

for data storage and Digital Coast provisioning purposes.

Environmental factors such as wind strength and direction, cloud cover, water clarity and depth influenced the area of data acquisition on a daily basis. The data was processed using the LADS Mark II Ground System and data visualization, quality control and final products were created using CARIS HIPS and SIPS and CARIS BASE Editor. All users should individually evaluate the suitability of this data according to their own needs and standards.

Original contact information:

Contact Org:

National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA),

Biogeography Branch

Phone: 301-713-3028

Email: ccma@noaa.gov

This LiDAR collection is an important effort in an ongoing NOAA scientific research mission in the US Caribbean to characterize nearshore to 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 acquired bathymetry, relative seafloor reflectivity, and hyperspectral imagery 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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The Descriptive Report for the STT/STJ data may be accessed at:

https://noaa-nos-coastal-lidar-pds.s3.amazonaws.com/laz/geoid18/1394/supplemental/LiDAR_2011_StThomasJohn_DAPR.pdf

A footprint of this data may be viewed in Google Earth at:

https://noaa-nos-coastal-lidar-pds.s3.amazonaws.com/laz/geoid18/1394/supplemental/2011_NOAA_USVI_Bathy_Lidar.kmz

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. Any conclusions drawn from the analysis of this

information are not the responsibility of the NOAA Office for Coastal Management or its partners.

This data can be obtained on-line at the following URL:

https://coast.noaa.gov/dataviewer/#/lidar/search/where:ID=1394

This data set is dynamically generated based on user-specified parameters.

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None, but 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.

Users should be aware that temporal changes may have occurred since this data set was collected and some parts of this data may no

longer represent actual surface conditions. Users should not use this data for critical applications without a full awareness of its

limitations.

Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 3; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.3.1.4000

The lidar survey for STT/STJ met the IHO Order 1 Standard. The data for SARI and BUIS were collected for research, not charting.

They were collected using the same acquistion parameters as STT/STJ, but their uncertainties were not quantified. As such,

it is not known if this data in these two areas, met IHO Order 1 standards.

Please refer to the Descriptive Report for STT/STJ for additional information:

https://noaa-nos-coastal-lidar-pds.s3.amazonaws.com/laz/geoid18/1394/supplemental/LiDAR_2011_StThomasJohn_DAPR.pdf

The lidar survey for STT/STJ met the IHO 1 Order Standard. The data for SARI and BUIS were collected for research, not charting.

They were collected using the same acquistion parameters as STT/STJ, but their uncertainties were not quantified. As such,

it is not known if the data in these two areas met IHO Order 1 standards.

Please refer to the Descriptive Report for STT/STJ additional information:

https://noaa-nos-coastal-lidar-pds.s3.amazonaws.com/laz/geoid18/1394/supplemental/LiDAR_2011_StThomasJohn_DAPR.pdf

This is a gridded dataset. The original full-resolution Lidar data was used to create a down sampled uniform-resolution surface in CARIS.

All users should independently analyze the dataset according to their own needs and standards to determine data usability.