Text files of the navigation logged with Microsoft HyperTerminal during sampling survey 2010-005-FA conducted aboard the R/V Connecticut by the U.S. Geological Survey offshore of Massachusetts in Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound in September 2010 (BBVS_Sampling_nav_files)

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Frequently anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
Text files of the navigation logged with Microsoft HyperTerminal during sampling survey 2010-005-FA conducted aboard the R/V Connecticut by the U.S. Geological Survey offshore of Massachusetts in Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound in September 2010 (BBVS_Sampling_nav_files)
Abstract:
These data were collected under a cooperative agreement with the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Coastal and Marine Geology Program. The primary objective of this program, initiated in 2003, is to develop regional geologic framework information for the management of coastal and marine resources. Accurate data and maps of sea-floor geology are important first steps toward protecting fish habitat, delineating marine resources, and assessing environmental changes due to natural or human effects. The project is focused on the inshore waters (5-30 meters deep) of Massachusetts. 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/html/current_map.html). This spatial dataset is from the study area located in Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound Massachusetts, and consists of ground-validation data which include the spatial extent of sea-floor sediment sample analyses, the location of sea-floor bottom photographs, and the tracklines along which sea-floor video was collected. These ground-validation (or ground-truth) data accompany a suite of high-resolution geophysical data, including swath bathymetry, sidescan-sonar backscatter intensity, and seismic-reflection data that were released in USGS Open File Reports 2012-1002 and 2012-1006. The sea-floor sampling data were collected during USGS survey 2010-005-FA in 2010 and cover more than 750 square kilometers of the inner continental shelf where the geophysical data were collected in 2009 and 2010.
  1. How might this data set be cited?
    U.S. Geological Survey, 2015, Text files of the navigation logged with Microsoft HyperTerminal during sampling survey 2010-005-FA conducted aboard the R/V Connecticut by the U.S. Geological Survey offshore of Massachusetts in Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound in September 2010 (BBVS_Sampling_nav_files): Open-File Report 2014-1221, 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., Pappal, Adrienne L., Huntley, Emily C., Blackwood, Dann S., and Schwab, William C., 2015, Geological Sampling Data and Benthic Biota Classification: Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound, Massachusetts: Open-File Report 2014-1221, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details:
    Suggested citation: Ackerman, S.D., Pappal, A.L., Huntley, E.C., Blackwood, D.S., and Schwab, W.C., 2015, Geological sampling data and benthic biota classification—Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound, Massachusetts: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2014–1221, 30 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20141221.
  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -71.0971600
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -70.4568533
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 41.6498300
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 41.2667683
  3. What does it look like?
  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?
    Beginning_Date: 09-Sep-2010
    Ending_Date: 14-Sep-2010
    Currentness_Reference:
    ground condition
  5. What is the general form of this data set?
  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?
    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?
      This is a Point data set.
    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?
    Entity_and_Attribute_Overview:
    The times recorded in the navigation file are in UTC. The National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) strings $GPGGA and $GPVTG are stored in these navigation files. These are defined as follows:
    $GPGGA is GPS fix data in the format "$GPGGA, t, lat, lath, long, longh, q, sat, h, a, M, alt, M, t2, refcheck" where t=time in UTC in the format hhmmss.ss; lat=latitude in the format ddmm.mmmmmm; lath= N or S indicating the latitude hemisphere; long=longitude in the format dddmm.mmmmmm; longh=E or W indicating the hemisphere; q=fix quality where 0=fix not available or invalid, 1=GPS fix, 2=Differential GPS fix, 3=GPS PPS Mode fix, 4=RTK fix, 5=RTK float; sat=number of satellites; h=Horizontal Dilution of Precision (HDOP); a=Antenna altitude above mean sea level (geoid); M= units of antenna altitude in meters; alt=height of geoid above WGS84 ellipsoid; M=units of geoidal height in meters; t2=time since last DGPS update; refcheck=DGPS reference station id and the checksum.
    Example: $GPGGA,173356.00,4204.848996,N,07036.929067,W,4,09,01.1,00003.278,M,-028.888,M,01,0000*56 UTC Time = 173356 Latitude = 4204.848996 N Longitude = 7036.929067 W Fix Quality = 4 Number of satellites = 9 HDOP = 01.1 relative accuracy of horizontal position Altitude = 3.278 meters above mean sea level Height of geoid above WGS84 ellipsoid = -28.888 meters Time since last update = 01 Checksum = *57.
    $GPVTG is track made good and ground speed in the format "$GPCTG, true, T, mag, M, grsp1, N, grsp2, K, mode", where true=true course made good over ground in degrees, T= True, mag=magnetic course made good over ground in degrees, M=magnetic, grsp1=ground speed, N=Knots, grsp2=ground speed, K=Kilometers per hour, mode=Mode indicator (A=Autonomous, D=Differential, E=Estimated, N=Data not valid).
    Example: $GPVTG,340.39,T,356.37,M,005.50,N,010.18,K,D*27 True course made good: 340.39 Magnetic course made good: 356.37 Ground speed (knots) = 5.5 Ground speed (kilometers) = 10.18 Mode=Differential
    Entity_and_Attribute_Detail_Citation:
    The definitions of the NMEA strings were obtained from: http://home.mira.net/~gnb/gps/nmea.html and http://www.nps.gov/gis/gps/NMEA_sentences.html

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 provides the raw navigation files acquired during USGS survey 2010-005-FA offshore of Massachusetts in Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound. Survey 2010-005-FA was conducted aboard the R/V Connecticut September 9-14, 2010. A Microsoft HyperTerminal session on a Dell Latitude D820 laptop computer was used to log these raw Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation data.

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?
  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?
    Date: Sep-2010 (process 1 of 3)
    The raw navigation feed from the Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) receiver was logged at a one-second interval using Microsoft HyperTerminal on a Dell Latitude D820 laptop computer. Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) navigation from an Ashtech BR2G GPS unit was logged through a Microsoft HyperTerminal (version 5.1) session on a Dell Latitude D820 laptop computer running Windows XP, SP2 via serial cable. Log files were saved for each sampling watch then reformatted into log files by Julian day (e.g. JD252.txt) during post-processing.
    Raw navigation data were saved in ASCII text format. Original navigation file name convention is JDXXX_A.txt, where JD is the Julian day, XXX is the numeric Julian day, and _A indicated that this is a temporary file. The reformatted log files are named JDXXX.txt. No editing was done in the reformatting, just a rearrangement of records into files organized by Julian day. However, included in the zip file of data is an AWK script (awkseth.gpgga10005.sda.awk) that can be used to extract the navigation from each log file into the following format: time, latitude (in decimal degrees), longitude (in decimal degrees), Julian day, source file. Person who carried out this activity:
    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
    Data sources produced in this process:
    • Original navigation files
    Date: Sep-2010 (process 2 of 3)
    The original log files were reformatted into log files by full Julian day (e.g. JD252.txt, JD253.txt, etc). No additional editing was done in this step, the navigation records were simply rearranged into files organized by Julian day. Person who carried out this activity:
    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
    Data sources produced in this process:
    • Navigation files organized by Julian day
    Date: 25-Jul-2025 (process 3 of 3)
    The following edits were performed on this file: Modified the title to move filename to end of title; 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 (without any other source information) to the first process step in addition to the information already in the first process step (related information); 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) Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: VeeAnn A. Cross
    Marine Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Rd.
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

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

    Andrews, Brian D., Ackerman, Seth D., Baldwin, Wayne E., Foster, David S., and Schwab, William C., 2013, High-Resolution geophysical data from the inner continental shelf at Vineyard Sound, Massachusetts: Open-File Report 2012-1006, 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?
    Navigation for survey 2010-005-FA used Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS). The recorded position of each navigation point is the position of the GPS antenna on the survey vessel, not the SEABOSS sampler. A conservative estimate the horizontal accuracy of the DGPS locations is 10 meters. The estimated horizontal accuracy of the sampling data is greater than 10 meters because no layback or offset was applied to the recorded position to account for the position of the SEABOSS sampler.
  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?
  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?
    These files represent all the navigation recorded by the Microsoft HyperTerminal session during USGS survey 2010-005-FA.
  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?
    The original files recorded by a Microsoft HyperTerminal session were logged roughly by Julian day. The original files were split and combined to create an individual file for each Julian day of surveying (starting at time 000000, ending at 235959). These files include navigation data during the transits en-route to, returning from, and between the sampling sites. In general, the navigation feed was continuous, even during breaks in the sampling survey, although some gaps in the navigation data may occur during the transit times. A quality check of these files revealed a total of one-hundred eleven records of garbled or null navigation data; these records were not removed or corrected. Additional records of well-formatted but erroneous navigation fixes may occur but were not checked, removed or corrected.

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?
    Unless otherwise stated, all data, metadata and related materials are considered to satisfy the quality standards relative to the purpose for which the data were collected. Although these data and associated metadata have been reviewed for accuracy and completeness and approved for release by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the display or utility of the data for other purposes, nor on all computer systems, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty.
  4. How can I download or order the data?
    • Availability in digital form:
      Data format: ASCII text files containing RAW navigation data and an AWK script (awkseth.gpgga10005.sda.awk) that can be used to extract the navigation from each log file into the following format: time, latitude (in decimal degrees), longitude (in decimal degrees), Julian day, source file. in format ASCII (version zip file) Zip file of text files Size: 10.739
      Network links: https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2014/1221/GIS/navigation/BBVS_Sampling_nav_files.zip
      Media you can order: DVD-ROM (Density 4.75 Gbytes) (format UDF)
    • Cost to order the data: none

  5. What hardware or software do I need in order to use the data set?
    These data are available as a ASCII text files. To utilize these data, the user must have software capable of viewing text files.

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 25-Jul-2025
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 the U.S. Geological Survey.
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/ofr2014-1221/BBVS_Sampling_nav_meta.faq.html>
Generated by mp version 2.9.51 on Mon Jul 28 09:52:39 2025