{
    "tag": 18767,
    "title": "Multibeam backscatter data collected in the vicinity of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, during USGS Field Activity 2021-037-FA using a dual-head Teledyne Seabat T20-R multibeam echo sounder (8-bit grayscale GeoTIFF, UTM Zone 19N, WGS 84, 50-cm resolution)",
    "pubdate": "20241220",
    "sername": null,
    "series_name": null,
    "issue": "DOI:10.5066\/P13XQBUC",
    "publish": null,
    "publisher_name": null,
    "onlink": "https:\/\/cmgds.marine.usgs.gov\/catalog\/whcmsc\/SB_data_release\/DR_P13XQBUC\/2021-037-FA_ResonT20R_Backscatter_50cm_meta.faq.html",
    "format": null,
    "email": null,
    "descript": "In November 2021, the U.S. Geological Survey collected high-resolution multibeam sonar data in the vicinity of Eel Pond, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts using a dual-head Teledyne Seabat T20-R multibeam echo sounder (MBES). The main objective of this survey was to evaluate new sonar system features prior to their use in future field activities. In addition to bathymetry and relative acoustic backscatter data, normalized acoustic backscatter data were also collected. Unlike relative backscatter data, normalized backscatter data compensate for adjustments made to sonar power, gain, absorption, spreading, and frequency parameters made during acquisition. In order for backscatter intensity levels to remain consistent along survey lines, and from line to line, relative backscatter data require that minimal adjustments are made to these parameters during acquisition, which can degrade the sonar performance for a given survey site. However, the ability to allow the sonar acquisition software to change sonar parameters based on variations in bathymetry and the survey environment during acquisition allows these parameters to be optimized. Having these parameters optimized for this survey allowed the USGS to evaluate this new normalized backscatter capability to ensure the collected backscatter intensity levels were referenced to a factory calibrated level.  Eel Pond in Woods Hole, MA was chosen as a test area for its proximity to the USGS Coastal and Marine Science Center. It provides a variety of substrates on which to evaluate the performance of the sonar, and bathymetric\/backscatter data of this area may prove useful to other projects and institutions in the area.",
    "lang": null,
    "journal": null,
    "pwid": null,
    "originator": [
        {
            "name": "Moore, Eric M.",
            "role": "Author"
        },
        {
            "name": "Danforth, William W.",
            "role": "Author"
        },
        {
            "name": "Nichols, Alexander R.",
            "role": "Author"
        },
        {
            "name": "Worley, Charles R.",
            "role": "Author"
        }
    ],
    "index_term": [
        {
            "thcode": 2,
            "code": "474",
            "name": "geospatial datasets",
            "scope": "Collections of related digital information that are geographically referenced."
        },
        {
            "thcode": 2,
            "code": "2036",
            "name": "multibeam sonar",
            "scope": "Acoustic technique for determining depths or creating backscatter imagery in a wide swath of seafloor or lakebed centered below the instrument platform."
        },
        {
            "thcode": 2,
            "code": "2053",
            "name": "sea-floor acoustic reflectivity",
            "scope": "Acoustic energy received by a sonar system, providing a measure of the roughness of the sea floor."
        },
        {
            "thcode": 2,
            "code": "1025",
            "name": "sea-floor characteristics",
            "scope": "Geomorphic features and geographic, compositional, and textural variation in the materials composing the ocean floor. Includes both large-scale structures (such as seamounts and rises) and fine-scale variations in rocks and deposits on the sea floor."
        },
        {
            "thcode": 15,
            "code": "008",
            "name": "geoscientificInformation",
            "scope": "Information pertaining to earth sciences, for example geophysical features and processes, geology, minerals, sciences dealing with the composition, structure and origin of the earth's rocks, risks of earthquakes, volcanic activity, landslides, gravity information, soils, permafrost, hydrogeology, groundwater, erosion"
        },
        {
            "thcode": 15,
            "code": "010",
            "name": "imageryBaseMapsEarthCover",
            "scope": "Base maps, for example land\/earth cover, topographic maps, imagery, unclassified images, annotations, digital ortho imagery"
        }
    ],
    "place_term": [],
    "image": [
        {
            "name": "https:\/\/www.sciencebase.gov\/catalog\/file\/get\/663e4260d34eaf9729f7ae77?name=2021-037-FA_ResonT20R_Backscatter_50cm_browse.jpg",
            "description": "Thumbnail image of multibeam echo sounder backscatter data collected within Eel Pond, Woods Hole, MA."
        }
    ],
    "fan": [
        "2021-037-FA"
    ]
}