Survey lines along which Klein 3000 sidescan-sonar data were collected in Buzzards Bay by the U.S. Geological Survey offshore of Massachusetts in 2009, 2010, and 2011 (BB_BackscatterTracklines Esri Polyline Shapefile, Geographic, WGS84).

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Frequently anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
Survey lines along which Klein 3000 sidescan-sonar data were collected in Buzzards Bay by the U.S. Geological Survey offshore of Massachusetts in 2009, 2010, and 2011 (BB_BackscatterTracklines Esri Polyline Shapefile, Geographic, WGS84).
Abstract:
These data were collected under a cooperative agreement between the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center (WHSC). Initiated in 2003, the primary objective of this program is to develop regional geologic framework information for the management of coastal and marine resources. Accurate data and maps of seafloor geology are important first steps toward protecting fish habitat, delineating marine resources, and assessing environmental changes due to natural or human impacts. The project is focused on the inshore waters of coastal Massachusetts, primarily in water depths of 5 to 30 meters (m) deep. Data collected for the mapping cooperative have been released in a series of USGS Open-File Reports (http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/coastal_mass/). The data collected in the study area in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, include high-resolution geophysics (bathymetry, backscatter intensity, and seismic reflection) and ground validation (sediment samples, video tracklines, and bottom photographs). The geophysical data are released in USGS Open-File Report 2012-1002, High-Resolution Geophysical Data from the Inner Continental Shelf: Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts (http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1002/). The sampling data have not been prepared for publication yet. The geophysical data were collected during four separate surveys conducted between 2004 and 2011 (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) survey H11319 (in 2004; bathymetry only) and USGS surveys 2009-002-FA, 2010-004-FA, and 2011-004-FA)) and cover 410 square kilometers of the inner continental shelf. More information about the individual USGS surveys conducted as part of the Buzzards Bay project can be found on WHCS Field Activity Web pages: 2009-002-FA: http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2009-002-FA 2010-004-FA: http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2010-004-FA 2011-004-FA: http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2011-004-FA Information about the NOAA survey can be found at: H11319: http://surveys.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/NOS/coast/H10001-H12000/H11319/DR/
  1. How might this data set be cited?
    U.S. Geological Survey, 2013, Survey lines along which Klein 3000 sidescan-sonar data were collected in Buzzards Bay by the U.S. Geological Survey offshore of Massachusetts in 2009, 2010, and 2011 (BB_BackscatterTracklines Esri Polyline Shapefile, Geographic, WGS84).: Open-File Report 2012-1002, 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., Andrews, Brian D., Foster, David S., Baldwin, Wayne E., and Schwab, William C., 2013, High-Resolution Geophysical Data from the Inner Continental Shelf: Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts.: Open-File Report 2012-1002, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

    Online Links:

  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -71.121994
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -70.657272
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 41.669838
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 41.369881
  3. What does it look like?
    http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1002/GIS/browse_jpg/big/BB_BackscatterTracklines.jpg (JPEG)
    Klein 3000 trackline navigation for Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts
  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?
    Beginning_Date: 28-May-2009
    Ending_Date: 13-May-2011
    Currentness_Reference:
    ground condition of individual surveys on the following dates: 20090528-20090618; 20100515-20100520; 20110513
  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 (690)
    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?
    BB_BackscatterTracklines
    Trackline for sidescan 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
    FileName
    Name of the trackline along which sidescan-sonar data were collected. The extended FILENAME scheme looks like this: "lLLfN_YYMMDDHHMMSS" where LL=line number; N=file number; YY=year; MM=month; DD=day; HH=hour; MM=minute; SS=seconds (date/time based on UTC time). (Source: USGS) String up to 40 characters
    Year
    Year data were collected (Source: USGS) Four character string
    JulDay
    Julian day of the start of data collection 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. (Source: USGS) Three character string
    SurveyID
    WHSC field activity identifier in the new style (e.g. "2009-002-FA" where 2009 is the survey year, 002 is survey number of that year, and FA is Field Activity); Note the old style of this would be represented as "09002" (Source: USGS) Eleven character string
    DeviceID
    Sonar device used to collect sidescan-sonar data (Source: USGS) String up to 15 characters
    VehicleID
    Survey vessel name (Source: USGS) String up to 30 characters
    TimeStart
    Start time for the sidescan-sonar survey line in UTC (hh:mm:ss) (Source: USGS) Eight character string
    TimeEnd
    End time for the sidescan-sonar survey line in UTC (hh:mm:ss) (Source: USGS) Eight character string
    Length_km
    Length of sidescan-sonar survey line in kilometers (UTM Zone 19N, WGS84) (Source: USGS)
    Range of values
    Minimum:0.09
    Maximum:19.53

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?

This dataset contains approximately 4230 linear kilometers of trackline navigation for Klein 3000 sidescan-sonar data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey in 2009, 2010 and 2011 during USGS surveys 2009-002-FA, 2010-004-FA and 2011-004-FA) offshore of Massachusetts, in Buzzards Bay. These data are used to define the seafloor morphology as part of the Massachusetts Seafloor Mapping Project.

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?
    none (source 1 of 1)
    U.S. Geological Survey, Unpublished Material, Raw sidescan sonar data.

    Type_of_Source_Media: disc
    Source_Contribution:
    Data acquisition at sea: Sidescan sonar data were collected with a Klein 3000 dual frequency (132/445 kHz) sidescan-sonar towfish on the M/V Megan T. Miller (2009-002-FA and 2010-004-FA) and the M/V Scarlett Isabella (2011-004-FA). During all three surveys the sonar was towed from the stern A-frame of the vessel. A 3PS digital block cable counter was used to measure the amount of tow cable deployed, and cable-out values were transmitted via serial connection to the SonarPro acquisition software (versions 10.0 and 11.0) for layback calculation. Tracklines are generally spaced 100m apart (150m in the central Buzzards Bay area where the USGS data overlaps with NOAA multibeam echo-sounder data). Most of the data were acquired roughly parallel to the axis and shipping lane within Buzzards Bay at an average speed of 5 knots. Some survey specific specifications are listed below: 2009-002-FA SonarPro version: 10.0 nav: from the antenna on the aft end of the acquisition van into the Ashtech BRG2 receiver (DGPS) sheave offsets x: -2.0m; y: -8.35m; z: +2.0m 2010-004-FA SonarPro version 11.0 nav: from the center antenna on the SWATHplus pole into the NovAtel DL-V3 receiver (RTK) sheave offsets x: -4.1m; y: -14.94m; z: -1.33m 2011-004-FA SonarPro version 11.0 nav: from the antenna on the fwd end of the acquisition van into the Ashtech BRG2 receiver (DGPS) sheave offsets x: +4.31m; y: -9.18m; z: 0.0m
  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?
    Date: 2012 (process 1 of 7)
    Navigation was extracted at 1-minute (2009-002-FA and 2010-004-FA) or 30-second (2011-004-FA) intervals from the raw sidescan sonar data (XTF format) using the XSonar (versions: 1.1 in 2009 and 2.0 in 2010 and 2011) 'demultiplex' function (Danforth and others, 1991). Spurious fixes were removed or corrected when possible. Navigation files were renamed if necessary (see completeness report in this metadata file), reformatted, and concatenated by survey, using shell scripts convertXsonarNav_2012 and Xsonar2ArcNav_2012, into comma-separated value (CSV) text files. Old style USGS field activity numbers (09002, 10004 or 11004) were appended to each record in the respective CSV files using the Vi editor VIM (version 7.3). The CSV files were concatenated into a single CSV file prior to import into ArcGIS (version 9.3). [output files: Klein_SonarnavLines_09002_FINAL.csv, Klein_SonarnavLines_10004_FINAL.csv, Klein_SonarnavLines_11004_FINAL.csv and Klein_ALL_BB.csv] 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
    Date: 2012 (process 2 of 7)
    In ArcCatalog (version 9.3), navigation text was converted to a point feature class by right-clicking on the comma separated text file -- Create Feature Class -- from XY table using the defined projection Geographic (Decimal_Degrees_WGS84.prj). {outputfile: XYKlein_ALL_BB.shp] Person who carried out this activity:
    Seth Ackerman
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Rd.
    Woods Hole, MA

    (508) 548-8700 x2315 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    sackerman@usgs.gov
    Date: 2012 (process 3 of 7)
    VAC Extras tool (version: 2.04 FeatConv - Points to Line v2; USGS in-house software) was then used within ArcMap (version 9.3) to convert the navigation points to a trackline shapefile. The 'FileName' field was used to define which points were used to generate each polyline feature, and the first occurrence of fields 'JulDay', 'SurveyID', and 'Time' and the last occurrence of 'Time' were chosen to be included as attributes in the output shapefile. The trackline shapefile was checked to ensure there were no spurious navigation fixes. XTools Pro (version 7.1.0) for ArcGIS desktop was used (Table Operations - Table Restructure) to reorganize and add fields to the polyline shapefile's attribute table. Table attributes for the survey ID ("SurveyID'), Julian day ('JulDay') of data collection, start time ('TimeStart') and end time ('TimeEnd') of each line were already populated but renamed if necessary. Fields for device used to collect the data ('DeviceID'), survey vessel name ('VehicleID'), and year ('Year') were added and then populated using field calculator and the table editor in ArcMap (version 9.3). The length field ('Length_km') was also added and then populated using 'Calculate Geometry' (Property = Length; Use coordinate system of the data frame = WGS 1984 UTM Zone 19N; Unit = Kilometers), which can be accessed by right clicking on the attribute field name in the table view. Person who carried out this activity:
    Seth Ackerman
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Rd.
    Woods Hole, MA

    (508) 548-8700 x2315 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    sackerman@usgs.gov
    Date: 08-Dec-2015 (process 4 of 7)
    Edits to the metadata were made to fix any errors that MP v 2.9.32 flagged. This is necessary to enable the metadata to be successfully harvested for various data catalogs. In some cases, this meant adding text "Information unavailable" or "Information unavailable from original metadata" for those required fields that were left blank. Other minor edits were probably performed (title, publisher, publication place, etc.). The metadata date (but not the metadata creator) was edited to reflect the date of these changes. The metadata available from a harvester may supersede metadata bundled within a download file. Compare the metadata dates to determine which metadata file is most recent. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: VeeAnn A. Cross
    Marine Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Rd
    Woods Hole, MA

    508-548-8700 x2251 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    vatnipp@usgs.gov
    Date: 20-Jul-2018 (process 5 of 7)
    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: 18-Nov-2019 (process 6 of 7)
    Crossref DOI link was added as the first link in the metadata. 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 7 of 7)
    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?
    Danforth, William W., 1997, XSonar/ShowImage: A complete system for rapid sidescan-sonar processing and display.: Open-File Report 97-686, U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole Science Center, Woods Hole, MA.

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

  1. How well have the observations been checked?
    All attributes were checked in a consistent manner.
  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?
    Field activity 2009-002: The Klein 3000 was towed from the stern A-frame of the M/V Megan T. Miller. Differential GPS (DGPS) position data were provided by the Ashtech BRG2 receiver and recorded to the raw data files (XTF) via SonarPro (version 10.0) on the sonar acquisition computer. The GPS antenna was mounted on the aft end of the acquisition lab van. All GPS data during this survey was referenced to the WGS84 horizontal datum. The horizontal offsets between the GPS antenna and the sheave on the A-frame were measured prior to the survey (x: -2.0m; y:-8.35m; z: +2m). The side-scan tow cable was deployed through a 3PS digital block cable counter attached to the A-frame. Real-time cable-out measurements were transmitted via serial connection to the SonarPro acquisition software, which calculated tow-fish layback. All horizontal offsets were directly applied in the acquisition software so the navigation recorded in the XTF data reflect the position including the layback offset. The layback calculations do not account for fish motion behind the vessel, which is caused by sea state and vessel speed induced changes in the angle and scope of the tow cable. DGPS positional accuracy is estimated to be within 3-5 m; WAAS enable DGPS is estimated to be less than 3 m. Taking the additional fish motion and cable movement into account, a conservative estimate of positional accuracy for this dataset is estimated to be within 10 m. Field activity 2010-004: The Klein 3000 was towed from the stern A-frame of the M/V Megan T. Miller. Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS position data were provided by the NovAtel DL-V3 receiver and recorded to the raw data files (XTF) via SonarPro (version 11.0) on the sonar acquisition computer. The GPS antenna was mounted on the top of the SWATHplus (interferometric bathymetry) transducer pole, midship on the starboard side (the middle of the 3 bathymetry system antennas). On a few brief occasions the RTK-GPS signal was lost and the navigation system fell back to standalone DGPS or GPS mode. In these cases, the lower quality positions were used and no corrections were made for RTK navigation gaps. All GPS data during this survey were referenced to the WGS84 horizontal datum. The horizontal offsets between the GPS antenna and the sheave on the A-frame were measured prior to the survey (x: -4.1m; y: -14.94m; z: -1.33m). The side-scan tow cable was deployed through a 3PS digital block cable counter attached to the A-frame. Real-time cable-out measurements were transmitted via serial connection to the SonarPro acquisition software, which calculated tow-fish layback. All horizontal offsets were directly applied in the acquisition software so the navigation recorded in the XTF data reflect the position including the layback offset. The layback calculations do not account for fish motion behind the vessel, which is caused by sea state and vessel speed induced changes in the angle and scope of the tow cable. RTK positional accuracy is estimated to be less than 1 m. Taking the additional fish motion, cable movement and RTK-GPS navigation dropouts into account, a conservative estimate of positional accuracy for this dataset is estimated to be within 10 m. Field activity 2011-004: The Klein 3000 was towed from the stern A-frame of the M/V Scarlett Isabella. Differential GPS (DGPS) position data were provided by the Ashtech BRG2 receiver and recorded to the raw data files (XTF) via SonarPro (version 11.0) on the sonar acquisition computer. The GPS antenna was mounted on the forward end of the acquisition lab van. All GPS data during this survey was referenced to the WGS84 horizontal datum. The horizontal offsets between the GPS antenna and the sheave on the A-frame were measured prior to the survey (x: +4.31m; y: -9.18m; z: 0.0m). The side-scan tow cable was deployed through a 3PS digital block cable counter attached to the A-frame. Real-time cable-out measurements were transmitted via serial connection to the SonarPro acquisition software, which calculated tow-fish layback. All horizontal offsets were directly applied in the acquisition software so the navigation recorded in the XTF data reflect the position including the layback offset. The layback calculations do not account for fish motion behind the vessel, which is caused by sea state and vessel speed induced changes in the angle and scope of the tow cable. DGPS positional accuracy is estimated to be within 3-5 m; WAAS enable DGPS is estimated to be less than 3 m. Taking the additional fish motion and cable movement into account, a conservative estimate of positional accuracy for this dataset is estimated to be within 10 m.
  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?
  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?
    Only the subset of sidescan-sonar trackline navigation data collected within the study area of Buzzards Bay during field activities 2009-002-FA, 2010-004-FA, and 2011-004-FA are included in this spatial dataset. Trackline navigation for approximately 3,570 kilometers of additional sidescan-sonar trackline navigation data collected within Vineyard Sound, Massachusetts during these field activities were published in USGS Open-File Report 2012-1006 High-Resolution Geophysical Data from the Inner Continental Shelf: Vineyard Sound, Massachusetts (http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1006/). This shapefile includes trackline navigation from all the sidescan sonar data that was collected within the survey area; however only quality sonar data along the main survey lines were included in the sidescan sonar mosaic that is found on this report (BB_backscatter1m.tif). Noisy or poor quality data were not mosaicked. Data were omitted where it overlapped with equal or better quality data from an adjacent survey line (as was generally the case for lines less than several hundred meters long). Data from parts of lines l130f2_090606081500 and l131f1_090606091400 were omitted as they extended beyond the extent of the survey area and into an area covered by a previous sidescan sonar survey (http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2006/1357/). Some of the raw (.XTF) files for the sidescan-sonar survey lines were originally named without an underscore between the concise linename and the SonarPro generated timestamp part of the filename. Before processing the navigation files, all XSonar generated navigation files (.nav) were made consistent to have the underscore (e.g. l1f1090528041200.nav became l1f1_090528041200.nav).
  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?
    Any spurious data points were removed during processing. Because this dataset is made up of data from multiple surveys, duplicate names may exist if referring to survey lines by the FileName prefix only; however, duplicates are actually impossible based on the extended FILENAME scheme of "lLLfN_YYMMDDHHMMSS" where LL=line number; N=file number; YY=year; MM=month; DD=day; HH=hour; MM=minute; SS=seconds (date/time based on UTC time). Note that the underscore is sometimes omitted during acquisition and is therefore missing in the filename.

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? Downloadable Data
  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?
    • Availability in digital form:
      Data format: Trackline navigation for Klein 3000 sidescan-sonar data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey offshore of Massachusetts in Buzzards Bay. This also includes associated metadata. in format SHP (version ArcGIS 9.3) Esri polyline shapefile Size: 0.4
      Network links: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1002/GIS/shapefile/BB_BackscatterTracklines.zip
      Media you can order: DVD-ROM (Density 4.75 GB) (format UDF)
    • Cost to order the data: none

  5. What hardware or software do I need in order to use the data set?
    This zip file contains data available in Esri shapefile format. The zip file also contains associated metadata. The user must have ArcGIS or ArcView 3.0 or greater software to read and process the data file. In lieu of ArcView or ArcGIS, the user may utilize another GIS application package capable of importing the data. 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/open_file_report/ofr2012-1002/bb_backscattertracklines.shp.faq.html>
Generated by mp version 2.9.51 on Mon Mar 25 16:05:40 2024