Location of sound velocity profiles along with profile plots collected in 2015 by the U.S. Geological Survey along the Delmarva Peninsula, MD and VA (PNG images, CSV text, ASVP text, and Esri point shapefile, GCS WGS 84)

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Frequently anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
Location of sound velocity profiles along with profile plots collected in 2015 by the U.S. Geological Survey along the Delmarva Peninsula, MD and VA (PNG images, CSV text, ASVP text, and Esri point shapefile, GCS WGS 84)
Abstract:
The Delmarva Peninsula is a 220-kilometer-long headland, spit, and barrier island complex that was significantly affected by Hurricane Sandy in the fall of 2012. The U.S. Geological Survey conducted cruises during the summers of 2014 and 2015 to map the inner continental shelf of the Delmarva Peninsula using geophysical and sampling techniques to define the geologic framework that governs coastal system evolution at storm-event and longer timescales. Geophysical data collected during the cruises include swath bathymetric, sidescan sonar, chirp and boomer seismic reflection profiles, grab sample and bottom photograph data. More information about the USGS survey conducted as part of the Hurricane Sandy Response-- Geologic Framework and Coastal Vulnerability Study can be found at the project website or on the WHCMSC Field Activity Web pages: https://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/delmarva/, https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2014-002-FA and https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2015-001-FA. Data collected during the 2014 survey can be obtained here: https://doi.org/10.5066/F7MW2F60
  1. How might this data set be cited?
    U.S. Geological Survey, 2016, Location of sound velocity profiles along with profile plots collected in 2015 by the U.S. Geological Survey along the Delmarva Peninsula, MD and VA (PNG images, CSV text, ASVP text, and Esri point shapefile, GCS WGS 84): data release DOI:10.5066/F7P55KK3, 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.

    Sweeney, Edward M., Pendleton, Elizabeth A., Ackerman, Seth D., Andrews, Brian D., Baldwin, Wayne E., Danforth, William W., Foster, David S., Thieler, E. Robert, and Brothers, Laura L., 2016, High-resolution geophysical data collected along the Delmarva Peninsula 2015, U.S. Geological Survey Field Activity 2015-001-FA: data release DOI:10.5066/F7P55KK3, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

    Online Links:

  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -75.892477
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -75.161099
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 37.840851
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 36.999618
  3. What does it look like?
    https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/data/field-activity-data/2015-001-FA/data/bathymetry/mvp-svp/2015-001-FA_MVP-SVP_data_browse.jpg (JPEG)
    Thumbnail image of sound speed profile locations for Delmarva Peninsula.
  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?
    Beginning_Date: 10-Jun-2015
    Ending_Date: 14-Jul-2015
    Currentness_Reference:
    ground condition; data were not collected on 20150628 (transition between Legs 1 and 2 of the survey)
  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):
      • Entity point (904)
    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 D_WGS_1984.
      The ellipsoid used is WGS_1984.
      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?
    2015-001-FA_MVP-SVP_data
    SOund velocity locations for survey 2015-001-FA along the Delmarva Peninsula. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)
    FID
    Internal feature number. (Source: Esri) Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.
    Shape
    Feature geometry. (Source: Esri) Coordinates defining the features.
    Lon
    Decimal degree longitude value in GCS WGS 84. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)
    Range of values
    Minimum:-75.892477
    Maximum:-75.161099
    Units:degrees
    Resolution:.00001
    Lat
    Decimal degree latitude value in GCS WGS 84. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)
    Range of values
    Minimum:36.999618
    Maximum:37.840851
    Units:degrees
    Resolution:.00001
    MVP
    Name of velocity profile used to distinguish between casts. Profile names beginning with 'MVP30' refer to the MVP30 moving vessel profiler casts (and are followed by cast number - 002 to 724) and profiles beginning with 'SVP' refer to the Applied Microsystems Minos sound velocity profile casts (and are followed by cast number - 725 to 906). (Source: U.S. Geological Survey) Character set
    Date
    Month/Day/Year when the MVP/SVP cast was collected. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey) Character set
    JD_UTC
    Julian day and UTC time when the MVP/SVP cast was collected in the format: JD:HH:MM; 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. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey) Character set
    SurveyID
    WHCMSC field activity identifier (e.g. "2015-001-FA" where 2015 is the survey year, 001 is survey number of that year, and FA is Field Activity). (Source: U.S. Geological Survey) Character set
    VehicleID
    Survey vessel name. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey) Character set
    DeviceID
    Device used to collect sound speed profile data. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey) Character set
    Entity_and_Attribute_Overview:
    The PNG images can be hyperlinked to their shapefile location in ArcGIS. The graphs show depth on the y-axis and speed of sound on the x-axis. The format of the ASVP files is as follows: Heading: SoundVelocity (file type), 1.00 (file format version number), cast number in filename (XXX), date/time of file creation ( YYYYMMDDhhmm), latitude (decimal degrees), longitude (decimal degrees), radii around the lat/long position for which the profile is valid (set to 1 meter), date of profile start ( YYYYMMDDhhmm), date of profile stop ( YYYYMMDDhhmm), source instrument of the profile (MVP P or SmartProbe P where P stands for Probe), number of values in the profile, which is followed by column data of depth (meters) and speed of sound (meters per second). The CSV file contains the following columns of data: castnum, Lon, Lat, date, JD_UTC, which correspond to the attributes of the same name in the shapefile.
    Entity_and_Attribute_Detail_Citation: U.S. Geological Survey

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?
    Edward M. Sweeney
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Physical Scientist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, Massachusetts
    USA

    508-548-8700 x2256 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    emsweeney@usgs.gov

Why was the data set created?

This dataset is used to display the locations of sound velocity profiles (SVP) (also referred to as sound speed profiles) collected during a 2015 USGS cruise along the Delmarva Peninsula. The information contained within the sound velocity profiles is needed to adequately account for refraction artifacts that may be present within raw swath bathymetric data. This dataset contains graphs of the sound velocity profile at each station location, as well as location in Geographic Coordinate System (GCS) WGS 84 latitude and longitude, time of day and date of collection.

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?
    raw sound velocity data (source 1 of 1)
    U.S. Geological Survey, Unpublished Material, Sound Velocity Data.

    Type_of_Source_Media: disc
    Source_Contribution:
    Sound speed profiles were collected to correct refraction artifacts in the swath bathymetric data that can occur due to changes in the speed of sound throughout the water column.
  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?
    Date: 14-Jul-2015 (process 1 of 6)
    Sound velocity profiles were collected every 1-2 hours and sometimes more frequently using a Brooks Ocean Moving Vessel Profiler (MVP) (see http://www.brooke-ocean.com/mvp_main.html; for details) from 20150610 to 20150704 (JD 161-185). A computer controlled smart winch and deployment system allowed the free fall MVP fish to be deployed while the vessel was underway at a user specified time interval. The Applied Microsystems Minos SVP was used from 20150704 through 20150714 (JD 185 - 195) and deployed over the side from the aft deck of the survey vessel by hand lowering the instrument. Data from both sound velocimeters were written to a Kongsberg SIS format ASCII file (.asvp). The ASVP files from the SVP were manually edited in a text editor to remove the up-cast data collection and to amend the number of data points the ASVP header. The MVP was set to only collect data on the down-cast. Person who carried out this activity:
    Wayne E. Baldwin
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Physical Scientist
    384 Woods Hole Rd.
    Woods Hole, MA

    (508) 548-8700 x2226 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    wbaldwin@usgs.gov
    Date: 14-Jul-2015 (process 2 of 6)
    A Python script was used to read the ASVP data and plot the sound speed profile as speed of sound (meter/second) versus depth (meters). Position, Date, Time, and Profile ID were pulled from the ASVP header and written into the image (PNG) for reference. Within the same script, the Position, Julian day, Time, and Profile ID were also imported to a spatially enabled SQLite (version 3.7.9) + Spatialite (version 3.0.1) relational database using the pyspatialite interface. The geographic positions were used to create point geometries for the station locations, and additional fields indicating survey ID, vessel ID, and device ID were added. Person who carried out this activity:
    Wayne E. Baldwin
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Physical Scientist
    384 Woods Hole Rd.
    Woods Hole, MA

    (508) 548-8700 x2226 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    wbaldwin@usgs.gov
    Date: 14-Jul-2015 (process 3 of 6)
    The Geospatial Data Abstraction Library / OGR Simple Features Library (GDAL/OGR) unix executable OGR2OGR was used to export the MVP and SVP station locations, station number (equivalent to Profile ID), Julian day, date, time, survey ID, vessel ID, and device ID from the relational database to an Esri point shapefile in Geographic Coordinate System (GCS, latitude and longitude) WGS 84. Person who carried out this activity:
    Wayne E. Baldwin
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Physical Scientist
    384 Woods Hole Rd.
    Woods Hole, MA

    (508) 548-8700 x2226 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    wbaldwin@usgs.gov
    Date: 19-Apr-2017 (process 4 of 6)
    The online links to the data were updated to reflect the new server hosting the data. Additionally, other small edits could be made to the metadata, such as modifying http to https where appropriate. The metadata date (but not the metadata creator) was edited to reflect the date of these changes. 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
    Date: 20-Jul-2018 (process 5 of 6)
    USGS Thesaurus keywords added to the keyword section. 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
    Date: 08-Sep-2020 (process 6 of 6)
    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?
    Pendleton, Elizabeth A., Ackerman, Seth D., Baldwin, Wayne E., Danforth, William W., Foster, David S., Thieler, E. Robert, and Brothers, Laura L., 2015, High-resolution geophysical data collected along the Delmarva Peninsula 2014, U.S. Geological Survey Field Activity 2014-002-FA: data release DOI:10.5066/F7MW2F60, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

    Online Links:

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?
    Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) and Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) enabled GPS navigation data were acquired during the 2015-001-FA survey using an Ashtech ProFlex 800 (ProFlex) and a Hemisphere GPS receivers, which were located on the portside of the acquisition van. Positioning data from these GPS receivers were recorded using HYPACK software version 14.0.9.47 (www.hypack.com) during the geophysical survey and positions from the Hemisphere GPS were used for MVP and SVP sound velocity deployment locations. Horizontal position accuracy is thought to be within 2 meters for WAAS enabled GPS position solutions (3 to 5 m for DGPS). However, offsets from the location of the MVP30 smart winch (which was used to deploy the MVP while underway) and the GPS antenna were not measured, and therefore the horizontal accuracy of the sound velocity profile locations is considered to be within 25 m.
  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?
  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?
    Sound velocity profiles not associated with the patch test (904 total) collected during cruise 2015-001-FA are included in the Esri shapefile. MVP30_0384 and SVP_0886 do not exist.
  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?
    Sound velocity profiles were acquired with an MVP30 Moving Vessel Profiler (MVP) from Brooke Ocean from 20150610 to 20150704 (JD 161-185) at which point the MVP30 was not recovered from cast number: MVP30_0724. The remaining sound speed profiles on 20150704 through 20150714 (JD 185 - 195) were collected with an Applied Microsystems Minos (SVP) hand-deployed velocimeter.

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 originator of the dataset.
  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)
    Edward M. Sweeney
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Physical Scientist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, Massachusetts
    USA

    508-548-8700 x2256 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    emsweeney@usgs.gov
  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set? USGS data release 2015-001-FA MVP/SVP data from the Delmarva Peninsula area (2015-001-FA_MVP-SVP_data.zip). The zip file contains the following shapefile: 2015-001-FA_MVP-SVP_data.shp, a CSV file that was used to create the shapefile (2015-001-FA_MVP-SVP_data.csv), a folder (mvp-svp_images) containing 904 PNG images that represent all sound velocity profiles graphically, a folder (mvp-svp_asvp) containing 904 .asvp ASCII files that represent all sound velocity profiles, a browse graphic (2015-001-FA_MVP-SVP_data_browse.jpg) and Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM) metadata files (2015-001-FA_MVP-SVP_data.xml) in four standard formats are also included in the zip file.
  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, CSV, ASVP and PNG formats. The user must have software capable of reading shapefile format to use these data. The CSV and ASVP files can be read with a text editor. PNG files can be viewed with any PNG image viewing software. The zip files must be uncompressed in order to view the images.

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 19-Nov-2021
Metadata author:
Edward M. Sweeney
U.S. Geological Survey
Physical Scientist
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole, Massachusetts
USA

508-548-8700 x2256 (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 metadata contact is no longer with the USGS or the email is otherwise invalid.
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/2015_001_fa/2015-001-FA_MVP-SVP_data.faq.html>
Generated by mp version 2.9.50 on Fri Nov 19 13:02:55 2021