Backscatter C [Swath]--Offshore of Tomales Point, California

During the Fugro Pelagos and CSUMB mapping missions, an Applanix Position and Motion Compensation System for Marine Vessels (POS/MV, 320, v4) was used to accurately position the vessels during data collection, and it also accounted for vessel's motion such as heave, pitch, and roll (position accuracy, +/-2 m; pitch, roll, and heading accuracy, +/-0.02; heave accuracy, +/-5%, or 5 cm). KGPS altitude data (Fugro Pelagos, StarFix HP & XP units; CSUMB, NavCom 2050) were used to account for tide cycle fluctuations and sound velocity profiles were collected with an Applied Microsystems SVPlus sound velocimeter. Soundings were corrected for vessel motion using the Applanix POS/MV data, for variations in water-column sound velocity using the AM SVPlus data, and for variations in water height (tides) using vertical-position data from the KGPS receivers. The multibeam backscatter data then were processed using Geocoder (Fugro Pelagos Modified Test Release 16) or Geocoder within Caris HIPS and SIPS. Within Geocoder, the backscatter intensities were radiometrically corrected (including despeckling and angle-varying gain adjustments), and the position of each acoustic sample was geometrically corrected for slant range. This processed imagery was stored as Georeferenced, Backscatter Rasters (GeoBARs). After GeoBARs were created for each line, they were mosaicked into 1-m or 2-m resolution images. Overlap between parallel lines was resolved using a priority table based on the distance of each sample from the ship track, with samples closest to- and furthest from- the ship track given the lowest priority. An anti-aliasing algorithm was also applied. The SWATHPlus backscatter data were processed using SXPTools v 2.0 (David Finlayson, USGS) and SEA Grid Processor v 3.02.19.0. The SXPTools sxpegn command was used to equalize the backscatter amplitude, and the sxpmagic command was used to help fill gaps and remove artifacts near nadir. After processing with SXPTools, lines were imported into Grid Processor and mosaicked into 1-m or 2-m resolution images. The mosaic images for each survey block was exported as a GeoJpeg from Grid Processor and converted to GeoTiff using Adobe Photoshop or GIMP. In some cases memory limitations in Grid Processor required tiling a block mosaic into 2 or more sub-mosaics.

During the USGS mapping within Tomales Bay (Anima and others, 2008), DGPS data and measurements of vessel motion (heave, pitch, and roll) were combined in a CodaOctopus F180 attitude and position system to produce a high-precision vessel attitude packet. This packet was transmitted to the acquisition software in real time and combined with instantaneous sound-velocity measurements at the transducer head before each ping. The returned samples were projected to the seafloor using a ray-tracing algorithm working with previously measured sound-velocity profiles. Statistical filters were applied to discriminate seafloor returns (soundings and backscatter intensity) from other unintended targets in the water column. Backscatter data were processed using USGS software SXPTools (David Finlayson, USGS) and mosaiced into 2-m resolution images.

California Seafloor Mapping Project 1- or 2-m resolution backscatter imagery within this map were downloaded from California State University, Monterey Bay, Seafloor Mapping Lab (http://seafloor.csumb.edu/SFMLwebDATA.htm) and converted to grids. Backscatter grids of similar mapping systems were merged in a GIS and clipped to the boundary of the map area. Grids from different mapping systems were not merged together due to different mapping frequencies and processing techniques. Grids were projected horizontally to WGS-84 using ESRI ArcTools.

Added Distribution_Information section to metadata to facilitate data download.

Keywords section of metadata optimized for discovery in USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Data Catalog.

Added keywords from Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) to metadata.

Edited metadata to add keywords section with USGS persistent identifier as theme keyword. No data were changed.