Survey lines along which swath sonar (bathymetric and backscatter) data were collected in 2012 by the U.S. Geological Survey in the Connecticut River during field activity 2012-024-FA (Polyline Shapefile)

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Frequently anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
Survey lines along which swath sonar (bathymetric and backscatter) data were collected in 2012 by the U.S. Geological Survey in the Connecticut River during field activity 2012-024-FA (Polyline Shapefile)
Abstract:
A geophysical and geological survey was conducted at the mouth of the Connecticut River from Old Saybrook to Essex, Connecticut, in September 2012. Approximately 230 linear kilometers of digital Chirp subbottom (seismic-reflection) and 234-kilohertz interferometric sonar (bathymetric and backscatter) data were collected along with sediment samples, riverbed photographs, and (or) video at 88 sites within the geophysical survey area. Sediment grab samples were collected at 72 of the 88 sampling sites, video was acquired at 68 sites, and photographs of the river bottom were taken at 38 sites. These survey data are used to characterize the riverbed by identifying sediment-texture and riverbed morphology. More information can be found on the web page for the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center field activity: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2012-024-FA. Data collected during the 2012 survey can be obtained here: https://doi.org/10.5066/F7PG1Q7V.
Supplemental_Information:
More information can be found on the WHCMSC Field Activity webpage: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2012-024-FA. Data collected during the 2012 survey can be obtained here: https://doi.org/10.5066/F7PG1Q7V.
  1. How might this data set be cited?
    U.S. Geological Survey, 2017, Survey lines along which swath sonar (bathymetric and backscatter) data were collected in 2012 by the U.S. Geological Survey in the Connecticut River during field activity 2012-024-FA (Polyline Shapefile): data release DOI:10.5066/F7PG1Q7V, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

    Online Links:

    This is part of the following larger work.

    Ackerman, Seth D., Foster, David S., Moore, Eric M., Irwin, Barry J., Blackwood, Dann S., and Sherwood, Christopher R., 2017, High-Resolution Geophysical and Sampling Data Collected at the Mouth of the Connecticut River, Old Saybrook to Essex, Connecticut, 2012: data release DOI:10.5066/F7PG1Q7V, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details:
    Suggested citation: Ackerman S.D., Foster D.S., Moore E.M., Irwin B.J., Blackwood D.S., and Sherwood, C.R., 2017, High-resolution geophysical and sampling data collected at the mouth of the Connecticut River, Old Saybrook to Essex, Connecticut, 2012: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7PG1Q7V.
  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -72.414853
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -72.333522
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 41.389383
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 41.239780
  3. What does it look like?
    https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/data/field-activity-data/2012-024-FA/data/bathymetry/2012-024-FA_SWATHPlusTracklines_browse.jpg (JPEG)
    Swath sonar trackline navigation from the Connecticut River
  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?
    Beginning_Date: 15-Sep-2012
    Ending_Date: 21-Sep-2012
    Currentness_Reference:
    ground condition of survey dates: 20120915-20120921; no sonar data were collected on 20120918; see Completeness_Report for more information
  5. What is the general form of this data set?
    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: vector digital data
  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?
    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?
      This is a Vector data set. It contains the following vector data types (SDTS terminology):
      • String (169)
    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?
      Horizontal positions are specified in geographic coordinates, that is, latitude and longitude. Latitudes are given to the nearest 0.000001. Longitudes are given to the nearest 0.000001. Latitude and longitude values are specified in Decimal degrees. The horizontal datum used is WGS_1984.
      The ellipsoid used is WGS 84.
      The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378137.000000.
      The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/298.257224.
  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?
    012-024-FA_SWATHPlusTracklines
    Trackline for swath sonar system (Source: USGS)
    FID
    Internal feature number (Source: ESRI) Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated
    Shape
    Feature geometry. (Source: ESRI) Coordinates defining the features
    LineName
    Survey line/file name; generally in the format l###f@ where ### is the name of the trackline along which swath bathymetric data were collected, @ is the file iteration (indicates the survey line was split into multiple files during acquisition). For example: survey line 8 was interrupted 5 minutes into the line, the ship circled around to the location where surveying was paused; there are 2 tracklines for line 8 "l8f1" and "l8f2". (Source: USGS) String up to 6 characters
    Yr_JD_str
    Year and Julian day of the start of data collection for a specific survey line where Julian day is the integer number (although recorded here in text string format) representing the interval of time in days since January 1 of the year of collection. For example: the Yr_JD_str field for l10f1 is "2012-260" (Source: USGS) 8 character string
    JD_UTC_str
    Julian day and time in UTC of the start of data collection for a specific survey line where Julian day is the integer number representing the interval of time in days since January 1 of the year of collection and UTC time is time represented in the format "hh:mm:ss". For example: the JD_UTC_str field for l10f1 is "260:14:50:16" (Source: USGS) 12 character string
    Yr_JD_end
    Year and Julian day of the end of data collection for a specific survey line where Julian day is the integer number (although recorded here in text string format) representing the interval of time in days since January 1 of the year of collection. For example: the Yr_JD_end field for l10f1 is "2012-260" (Source: USGS) 8 character string
    JD_UTC_end
    Julian day and time in UTC of the end of data collection for a specific survey line where Julian day is the integer number representing the interval of time in days since January 1 of the year of collection and UTC time is time represented in the format "hh:mm:ss". For example: the JD_UTC_end field for l10f1 is "260:15:08:06" (Source: USGS) 12 character string
    SurveyID
    WHCMSC field activity identifier in the new style (e.g. "2012-024-FA" where 2012 is the survey year, 024 is survey number of that year, and FA is Field Activity). (Source: USGS) 11 character string
    VehicleID
    Name of the survey vessel used for data collection (e.g. "R/V Rafael") (Source: USGS) 10 character string
    DeviceID
    Name of the sonar device used to collect swath bathymetric sonar data (e.g. "SWATHplus 234(M)") (Source: USGS) 16 character string
    Length_km
    Length of the swath bathymetric survey line in kilometers (UTM Zone 18N, WGS84) as calculated in the SQLite database. (Source: USGS)
    Range of values
    Minimum:0.11
    Maximum:3.90

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)
    • U.S. Geological Survey
  2. Who also contributed to the data set?
  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?
    Seth Ackerman
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Rd.
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    508-548-8700 x2315 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    sackerman@usgs.gov

Why was the data set created?

The swath sonar data collected along these tracklines were used to define the riverbed morphology in the Connecticut River. This dataset contains approximately 230 linear kilometers of trackline navigation for interferometric sonar (Systems Engineering and Assessment Ltd. SWATHPlus-M) bathymetric and backscatter data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey in the Connecticut River in 2012 during USGS field activity 2012-024-FA.

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?
    raw data (source 1 of 1)
    U.S. Geological Survey, Unpublished Material, raw bathymetry data.

    Type_of_Source_Media: disc
    Source_Contribution:
    This trackline navigation dataset documents the ship tracks along which swath sonar was collected by the US Geological Survey during field activity 2012-024-FA. A 234 kHz Systems Engineering and Assessment Ltd. (SEA) SWATHplus-M interferometric sonar was mounted on a rigid pole on the bow of the R/V Rafael. Data were acquired during September 2012.
  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?
    Date: 2013 (process 1 of 5)
    1. Raw to Processed conversion for USGS field activity 2012-024-FA: Each raw SWATHplus bathymetric sonar file (SXR) was converted to a SWATHplus processed file (SXP) using SEA SWATHplus Swath Processor (ver. 3.07.17.0). During the conversion process, sound velocity profiles were used to minimize potential refraction artifacts from fluctuations in the speed of sound within the water column. Various bathymetric filters were applied to eliminate sounding outliers. Predicted tidal information was merged into the processed file (SXP) during this conversion, however final tidal corrections were applied later in the processing flow. Bathymetric filtering typically included low amplitude (100%), range (0-4m), box (3-50m depth, 1.5-75m horizontal), median (window size 5), alongtrack 1 (depth difference of 5-m, window size 5-m, and learn rate of 0.7), alongtrack 2 (depth difference of 1.5-m, window size 1m, and learn rate of 0.9), and mean filters (0.25m). These represent the typical parameters used for the majority of the survey but slight adjustments were required for some areas. This process step and all subsequent process steps were performed by the same person - Seth Ackerman. Person who carried out this activity:
    Seth Ackerman
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Rd.
    Woods Hole, MA

    (508) 548-8700x2315 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    sackerman@usgs.gov
    Data sources used in this process:
    • raw data
    Date: 2012 (process 2 of 5)
    2. CARIS processing for USGS field activity 2012-024-FA: A new CARIS HIPS project (ver. 8.0) was created for this field activity with projection information set to Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone 18, WGS84. Each SWATHPlus processed file (sxp) was imported to the new CARIS project using the Import/Conversion Wizard. A 2-meter resolution Bathymetric and Statistical Error (BASE) Surface was created from the files for each Julian day. The BASE surface for each day was reviewed for any inconsistencies or data anomalies. Navigation was reviewed and edited as needed using the navigation editor tool.
    Date: 20-Oct-2016 (process 3 of 5)
    3. Perl, AWK, Python and Shell scripts were used to extract and reformat the navigation fixes stored in the CARIS HIPS database and add them to a SQLite database (version 3.7.9) that was geospatially extended using SpatiaLite (version 3.0.1). The processing flow for this step follows:
    A. Extract navigation for each line in CARIS HDCS directory using Perl script do_CARIS_nav3_2012_024.pl (which runs the CARIS program printfNav for all the lines in the HDCS dir). (Extracted navigation file is tab-delimited in format YYYY-JD HH:MM:SS:FFF DD.LAT DD.LONG SSSSS_VVVVV_YYYY-JD_LLLL AR where YYYY=year, JD=Julian Day, HH=hour, MM=minute, SS=seconds, FFF=fractions of a second, DD.LAT=latitude in decimal degrees, DD.LONG=longitude in decimal degrees, SSSSS=survey name, VVVVV=vessel name, LLLL=linename, AR=accepted or rejected navigation fix). This step creates the directory of TXT navigation files for each survey line in the CARIS project.
    B. The output TXT files from the printfNav process are parsed to remove rejected navigation records then reformatted into CSV files containing additional fields for survey ID, vessel name and system name using Shell and AWK scripts.
    C. A Python script (pySQLBathNav) runs on each reformatted CSV file parsing the file from each record and adding points to the SQLite database (which is created if it does not already exist). The pySQLBathNav script creates both point and trackline navigation for each survey line.
    D. When all of the survey lines have been processed into SQLite database, a polyline shapefile is exported from the database using spatialite_tools (ver. 4.1.1).
    Steps B, C and D were all run within a shell script called printfnavconv.
    Date: 20-Oct-2016 (process 4 of 5)
    4. XTools Pro (version 12.0) for ArcGIS desktop (version 10.3) was used (Table Operations - Table Restructure) to rename long attribute headings in the polyline shapefile's attribute table. Table attributes for the survey line ('LineName'), Year and Julian day ('Yr_JD_str') survey line started, Julian day and UTC time ('JD_UTC_str') survey line started, Year and Julian day ('Yr_JD_end') survey line ended, Julian day and UTC time ('JD_UTC_end') survey line ended, survey ID ('SurveyID'), survey vessel name ('VehicleID'), device used to collect the data ('DeviceID') and length field ('Length_km') of each line were already populated but renamed if necessary.
    Date: 08-Sep-2020 (process 5 of 5)
    Added keywords section with USGS persistent identifier as theme keyword. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: VeeAnn A. Cross
    Marine Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA

    508-548-8700 x2251 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    vatnipp@usgs.gov
  3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?

How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?

  1. How well have the observations been checked?
  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?
    USGS Field Activity 2012-024-FA: Navigation for SWATHplus-M system was acquired with a Coda Octopus F180 Real-time Kinematic Global Positioning System (RTK-GPS); which is accurate to less than 1 meter (typically on the order of centimeters) horizontally. The SWATHplus-M transducers were mounted on a rigid pole on the bow of the R/V Rafael. The RTK-GPS antenna was located on the same pole approximately 2.48 m above the sea surface. Horizontal sounding positions with offsets adjustments were recorded to raw sonar data files (SXR) via SWATHplus acquisition software (version 3.07.17.00).
  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?
  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?
    This dataset includes all of the swath-sonar trackline navigation that was collected for USGS field activity 2012-024-FA. Although this shapefile includes trackline navigation from all the swath sonar data, only quality sonar data along the main survey lines within the survey area were included in the final bathymetry rasters (2012-024-FA_Bathymetry2m) and backscatter imagery (2012-024-FA_Backscatter1m) found in this report (https://doi.org/10.5066/F7PG1Q7V). Time gaps occurred during this field activity where no surveying was done due to bad weather, rough seas and stops in surveying for equipment issues. No sonar data were collected on Tuesday 20120918.
  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?
    Any spurious data points were removed during processing. The patch test lines and line 1 were collected in Long Island Sound, not in the study area of the Connecticut River.

How can someone get a copy of the data set?

Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?
Access_Constraints None
Use_Constraints Public domain data from the U.S. Government are freely redistributable with proper metadata and source attribution. Please recognize the U.S. Geological Survey as the source of this information.
  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)
    Seth Ackerman
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Rd.
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    508-548-8700 x2315 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    sackerman@usgs.gov
  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set? USGS data release 2012-024-FA swath sonar navigation tracklines from the Connecticut River. The zip file contains a shapefile (2012-024-FA_SWATHPlusTracklines.shp), browse graphic (2012-024-FA_SWATHPlusTracklines_browse.jpg) and metadata files in standard formats.
  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?
    Neither the U.S. Government, the Department of the Interior, nor the USGS, nor any of their employees, contractors, or subcontractors, make any warranty, express or implied, nor assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, nor represent that its use would not infringe on privately owned rights. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the USGS in the use of these data or related materials. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
  4. How can I download or order the data?
  5. What hardware or software do I need in order to use the data set?
    This zip file contains data available in shapefile format. The zip file also contains associated metadata. The user must have software to read and process the data file. A free data viewer, ArcExplorer, capable of displaying the data is available from Esri at www.esri.com.

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 18-Mar-2024
Metadata author:
Seth Ackerman
U.S. Geological Survey
Geologist
384 Woods Hole Rd.
Woods Hole, MA
USA

508-548-8700 x2315 (voice)
508-457-2310 (FAX)
whsc_data_contact@usgs.gov
Contact_Instructions:
The metadata contact email address is a generic address in the event the person is no longer with USGS. (updated on 20240318)
Metadata standard:
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)
This page is <https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/catalog/whcmsc/field_activities/2012_024_fa/2012-024-FA_SWATHPlusTracklines.faq.html>
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