c179nc.m77t and c179nc.h77t: MGD77T data and header file for single-beam bathymetry data for field activity C-1-79-NC in Northern California from 05/01/1979 to 05/02/1979

The navigation data are collected using a Miniranger. The miniranger system is a range-range system that utilizes radar frequencies in the X band. It is limited to line of sight operation between two or more fixed transponders, but an individual reading can be accurate to 3 meters. This miniranger data was collected in the North American Datum of 1927 (Clarke 1866). The Data Acquisition, Processing, and Storage (DAPS) group performs a number of processing steps to the navigation data once it is collected which can vary by cruise. These steps are outlined within the header information in each individual digital navigation (.0xx, .6xx) space-delimited ASCII data file. The header information rows are indicated by lines beginning with the character "!". The single-beam bathymetry data are collected as analog records and hand-digitized. The bathymetry datasets were commonly processed using three programs: (A) Batred, which calculates depth from travel times; (B) nosamebathy, which eliminates identical adjacent bathymetry values; and (C) nozerobathy, which removes records with a depth value of "0.0". However, not all of the datasets included in this report were processed with one or more of these programs. If the data was not run through these programs it was reformatted using the most recent "best file" on InfoBank, often these were categorized by InfoBank as raw bathymetry files. Details about which processing steps were taken by the DAPS group can be found in the header information of the bathymetry and navigation ASCII files downloaded from InfoBank. Prior to reformatting the data into MGD77T format the "best" bathymetry and navigation files from InfoBank were edited to remove the header information and reformatted using Excel 2010 to separate the data into columns based on tabs. Next the bathymetry and navigation files were merged based on time and latitude and longitude. The combined navigation and bathymetry was saved as a .txt file. This combined bathymetry and navigation file was used as an input file into the GEODAS ReFormat to MDG77T program developed by NOAA's NGDC. The program outputs the reformatted data as a tab-delimited .m77t file. The program is available for use at: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/gdas/gx_announce.Html. For information regarding fields found within the MGD77T files, please refer to the publication, Hittelman and others (2010), found within the Cross-reference section of this metadata file. Each MGD77T data file also has an accompanying header file (.h77t). The fields within these header files are also defined in the aforementioned publication. Fields are populated based on InfoBank metadata records, digital data file headers, and accompanying publications (often cruise reports) for the survey. If a field is unknown or did not apply to the dataset it is intentionally left blank.