Bottom photographs (JPEG format) collected by the U.S. Geological Survey offshore of Massachusetts in Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound in September 2010 on the RV Connecticut

The SEABed Observation and Sampling System (SEABOSS) was designed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for rapid and effective collection of seabed images and sediment samples in coastal regions. The observations from video and still cameras and the sediment data are used to explore the nature of the seafloor and, in conjunction with high-resolution geophysical data, to make interpretive maps of sedimentary environments and validate the acoustic remote sensing data. The SEABOSS is a simple system that can be deployed from both small and large surface vessels and operates in water depths up to 200m. It incorporates two video cameras, a still camera, a depth sensor, and a modified Van Veen sediment sampler. The elements of this particular SEABOSS system are held within a stainless steel framework that measures 1.1 x 1.1 meters and weighs 167 kilograms overall. The frame has a stabilizer fin that orients the system as it drifts over the seabed. The digital camera, a Minolta DiMAGE A2, is mounted in a machined Delrin housing with a flat port and is set for 3264x2448 pixel images at the "fine" setting for compression. This allows the camera to be used for over 200 images with a 1 GB Compact Flash card without downloading. The system also has a PHOTOSEA strobe. Two lasers are set 20 cm apart (both as they are mounted on the SEABOSS frame and as seen in photographs and video on the seabed) for scale measurements. The red laser dots can usually be seen in the photo depending on the bottom type and the distance to the sea floor. A third laser is positioned at an angle so that when it intersects the other lasers, the SEABOSS is at the optimum height (approximately 75 cm) off the bottom for a still photograph. The camera is set to a manual focus and set to a default focus distance once the camera is powered up. The default focus distance is slightly less than the optimum height above the seafloor to account for optical distortion under water. All of the system's elements are powered from the surface vessel through a conducting cable. The winch operator views a video monitor so that the system can be maintained at an appropriate height above the bottom and obstacles can be avoided. Scientists also view video monitors and decide when to sample and take still photographs. Video displays include station number, water depth (from the depth sensor), and date, time, and geographic position (provided by a shipboard navigation system). The SEABOSS was deployed from the R/V Connecticut off the ship's A-frame on the stern of the ship. The vessel occupied one of the target stations and deployed the SEABOSS. The winch operator lowered the sampler until the seafloor was observed in the real-time bottom video. On most stations, the vessel and sampler drifted with wind and current for approximately 5-15 minutes. The SEABOSS operator monitored the real-time bottom video and acquired still bottom photographs at points of interest by remotely triggering the camera shutter. The number of photographs per station varied from 4-20 depending on the complexity of the bottom. The third laser on the system was set to an angle such that the optimum photograph height was 75 cm. The default focus on the camera was set to 50 cm. The imaged area is most often within 0.5 to 1.25 meters from left to right. Other camera settings are as follows: aperture is set at f/8; shutter speed is 1/125 second. The camera time during this survey was set to UTC, unless otherwise noted (see metadata for BBVS_BottomPhotos_wBio.shp (https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2014/1221/html/appendix1.html) for details on when the time value was wrong and how it was corrected).

Three-hundred and one target stations were occupied aboard the R/V Connecticut (USGS survey 2010-005-FA) with the large SEABOSS (Blackwood and Parolski, 2001) that was equipped with a Van Veen grab sampler, a digital still camera, and a video camera. JPEG photographs were acquired at each station. The digital photographs were downloaded from the camera and backed-up to a laptop and hard-drive four times during the sampling survey. The JPEG photos alone do not represent spatial data, however the shapefile BBVS_BottomPhotos_wBio.shp (also in this report, USGS OFR 2014-1221) makes the link between these photos and the navigation from USGS field activity 2010-005-FA. The link is possible because the JPEG photographs EXIF header records acquisition time. However, there was a drift in the camera time of up to 41 seconds by the end of the survey; see metadata for BBVS_BottomPhotos_wBio.shp for details on how this time drift was adjusted in post-processing.

Image names repeated for each subsequent day therefore the original JPEG images were renamed from the sequential, camera automatic filename (i.e. PICT0001.JPG) to a filename with the download number (1-4) prepended to the filename (e.g. d1_PICT0458.JPG). For example, d1 indicates the first download session.

The photo locations (BBVS_BottomPhotos_wBio.shp - see metadata for how the file was created on https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2014/1221/) were exported from ArcMap 9.3.1 using XTools Pro 7.1 as a comma-delimited text file. A temporary attribute was added to the shapefile (and later deleted) that represents GPSDATE in the format YYYYMMDD where YYYY is the year, MMis the numeric month, and DD is the numeric day. The attributes chosen for export from the modified file were: LAT, LONG, PICNAME, GPSTIME, GPSDATE. A PYTHON script (seth_write_exif.py) was then run that incorporated this information, along with additional information, into the appropriate locations in the EXIF header of each JPEG image. The PYTHON script uses exiftool (version 9.4.6.0) to write the information to the image headers.
The following tags were populated in the JPEG image headers. Information is duplicated in some tags. This was done because different software packages access different tags.
GPS tags: The values populated are unique for each image and based on the information exported from the photo locations shapefile.

GPSLatitudeRef
GPSLatitude
GPSLongitudeRef
GPSLongitude
GPSTimeStamp
GSPDateStamp

JPEG tags: The tag is listed along with the information used to populate it - which is the same for every image.

Comment: Photo from down-looking camera on the USGS SEABOSS deployed from the R/V Connecticut 
during survey 2010-005-FA (http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2010-005-FA)

EXIF tags: The tag is listed along with the information used to populate it - which is the same for every image.

ImageDescription: Photograph of the sea floor offshore of Massachusetts from survey 2010-005-FA
Artist: Seth D. Ackerman
Copyright: Public Domain - please credit U.S. Geological Survey

IPTC tags: The tag is listed along with the information used to populate it - which is the same for every image.

Credit: U.S. Geological Survey
Contact: WHSC_data_contact@usgs.gov
Keywords: Buzzards Bay Massachusetts, Vineyard Sound Massachusetts, Cape Cod Massachusetts,
2010-005-FA, SEABOSS, seafloor, sea floor, sea-floor, seabed, USGS
CopyrightNotice: Public Domain - please credit U.S. Geological Survey
Caption-Abstract: Photograph of the sea floor offshore of Massachusetts from survey 2010-005-FA

XMP tags: The tag is listed along with the information used to populate it - which is the same for every image.

Caption: Photograph of the sea floor offshore of Massachusetts from survey 2010-005-FA

To extract the information from the image headers using ExifTool, the following command can be used (tested with ExifTool version 9.4.6.0:

exiftool.exe -csv -f -filename -GPSTimeStamp -GPSLongitude -GPSLatitude -n -Artist -Credit -comment -keywords -Caption -Copyright -CopyrightNotice -Caption-Abstract -ImageDescription imgtest/*.jpg > out.csv

The -csv flag writes the information out in a comma-delimited format. The -n option formats the latitude and longitude as signed decimal degrees.

The following edits were performed on this file: Modified the title to remove the leading file descriptor; added the DOI link as the first link in the metadata file; added the suggested citation to the other citation details; added the DOI link as the first link in the larger work citation; fixed the publication date for both the datasets and larger work citation; removed Esri tags; rename “General” to “None” thesaurus name; added USGS Thesaurus terms; removed invalid ISO 19115 Topic Category terms; moved the text from the source contribution to a new first process step since the source information is describing the system set up and data collection (and didn't have all the necessary components of a source citation); because the images have navigation in the EXIF headers, the horizontal datum was added to be consistent with the other datasets in this publication; fixed all errors; replaced the distribution liability with an approved FSP statement; added a generic email with contact instructions for the metadata contact; added the metadata unique identifier (PID) in the thesaurus section; updated the metadata date. (20250725)