Color Shaded-Relief GeoTIFF Image Showing the Combined 4-m Multibeam Bathymetry Generated from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Surveys H11922, H11995, H11996, H12009, H12010, H12011, H12015, H12023, H12033, H12137, H12139, H12296, H12298, and H12299 Offshore in Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds (RICOMB_4MMB_GEO.TIF, Geographic, WGS 84)

The 63-m NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson and two 8.5-m aluminum Jensen launches (3101 and 3102) deployed from the ship acquired multibeam echosounder (MBES) data for 14 hydrographic surveys in Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds over an approximately 1255.6-square kilometer area between July 2008 and November 2011. Registry numbers for the completed surveys include: H11922, H11995, H11996, H12009, H12010, H12011, H12015, H12023, H12033, H12137, H12139, H12296, H12298, and H12299. During 2008, the MBES data were collected with a hull-mounted RESON SeaBat 240-kHz 8101 and 455-kHz 8125 shallow-water system aboard the launches and a RESON duel frequency (200-kHz/400-kHz)7125 system aboard the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson. During 2009 and 2011, the MBES data were collected with a hull-mounted RESON SeaBat 455-kHz 8125 shallow-water system aboard launch 3101 and RESON single frequency (400-kHz) 7125 systems aboard launch 3102 and the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson. Original vertical resolution of the multibeam data is approximately 0.5% of the water depth.. The bathymetric datasets were acquired and digitally logged with HYPACK Hysweep, and processed by NOAA using CARIS Hydrographic Image Processing System (HIPS) software for quality control, to incorporate sound velocity and tidal corrections, and to produce the combined bathymetry adjusted for statistical error (BASE) surfaces. Horizontal positioning was by differential global positioning systems (DGPS); HYPACK 2009 was used for acquisition line navigation. Sound-velocity corrections were derived with frequent conductivity-temperature-depth profiles. A Brooke Ocean Technology Moving Vessel Profiler (MVP) with an Applied Microsystems Smart Sound Velocity and Pressure (SV&P) sensor was used to collect sound speed profile data from the ship. Manually deployed Seabird Electronics SBE-19+ CTD units were used to collect sound speed profile data from the launches. Tidal zone corrections were calculated from data acquired by the National Water Level Observation Network stations at New London, Connecticut (8461490); Newport, Rhode Island (8452660); Menemsha Harbor, MA (8448725); and Montauk, New York (8510560). The vertical datum is mean lower low water; X and Y units are meters, UTM Zone 19, NAD 83. Detailed descriptions of the MBES acquisition and processing by NOAA can be found in the Descriptive Reports and in the Data Acquisition and Processing Reports.

The field sheets from the surveys (average depths, not the shoal based field sheets) were read back into CARIS HIPS/SIPS software version 7.1. Using the Base Surface -> Combine command within HIPS, all of the source CARIS base surfaces were combined into a master BASE surface (ricomb) having a 4 meter grid resolution.

A color, hill-shaded GeoTIFF image with a world file was exported from CARIS in the UTM projection of the original field sheets (UTM zone 19N, horizontal datum NAD83). Sun illumination is from the northeast at 45 degrees above the horizon, and vertical exaggeration is 5x.

The UTM projected GeoTIFF was imported into ArcGIS v10.0 and reprojected using the data management tool Project Raster (ArcToolbox, Data Management Tools, Projections and Transformations) from UTM Zone 19N, NAD 83 to Geographic, WGS 84. The options specified in the Project Raster tool were: 1. Input coordinate system: NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_19N 2. Output coordinate system: GCS_WGS_1984 3. Geographic transformation method: NAD_1983_WGS_1984_5 4. Resampling technique: BILINEAR 5. Output cell size: 0.000043 (decimal degrees, default as calculated by ArcMap for a 4 meter cell size) The geographic transformation selected is the most accurate one provided by Esri as it ties in WGS84 with ITRF96, thus reflecting the earth centered offset (x-y-z) between WGS 84 and NAD 83 (from the ESRI Knowledge Base Document Number 24159).

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.

Added keywords section with USGS persistent identifier as theme keyword.