SEABOSS Bottom Photographs from the Cruise 2014-046-FA in Narragansett Bay, in JPEG Format

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Frequently anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
SEABOSS Bottom Photographs from the Cruise 2014-046-FA in Narragansett Bay, in JPEG Format
Abstract:
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is producing detailed geologic maps of the coastal sea floor. Bathymetric data, originally collected by NOAA for charting purposes, provide a framework for research and management activities along southern Narragansett Bay, show the composition and terrain of the seabed, and provide information on sediment transport and benthic habitat. During September 2014, bottom photographs and surficial sediment data were acquired as part of a ground-truth reconnaissance survey of this area. Interpretations were derived from the multibeam-echosounder, sedimentary, and photographic data collected in Narragansett Bay. For more information on the ground-truth survey see https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2014-046-FA.
  1. How might this data set be cited?
    U.S. Geological Survey, 2015, SEABOSS Bottom Photographs from the Cruise 2014-046-FA in Narragansett Bay, in JPEG Format: Open-File Report 2015-1149, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Woods Hole, MA.

    Online Links:

    This is part of the following larger work.

    McMullen, K.Y., Poppe, L.J., Blackwood, D.S., Nardi, M.J., and Andring, M.A., 2015, Sea-floor morphology and sedimentary environments in southern Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island: Open-File Report 2015-1149, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details: DVD-ROM
  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -71.431541
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -71.316731
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 41.467492
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 41.423971
  3. What does it look like?
    https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2015/1149/data/botphotos/2014-046_324botphotos.gif (GIF)
    Thumbnail image showing location and extent of bottom photo locations in the H12324 study area in Narragansett Bay
  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?
    Beginning_Date: 15-Sep-2014
    Ending_Date: 16-Sep-2014
    Currentness_Reference:
    ground condition
  5. What is the general form of this data set?
    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: raster digital data
  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?
    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?
      This is a Raster data set.
    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?
  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?
    Entity_and_Attribute_Overview:
    These are digital images with EXIF headers. We have not verified the accuracy of all the information in the EXIF headers.
    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?
    Katherine McMullen
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Field and Laboratory Technician
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    (508) 548-8700 x2277 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    kmcmullen@usgs.gov

Why was the data set created?

The purpose of this dataset is to release the mid-resolution and full-resolution JPEG images of bottom photographs acquired with a small SEABOSS system during USGS survey 2015-046-FA in the H12324 study area in Narragansett Bay.

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?
    photos (source 1 of 1)
    U.S. Geological Survey, unknown, Information unavailable from original metadata..

    Type_of_Source_Media: camera
    Source_Contribution:
    The Mini SEABOSS (SEABed Observation and Sampling System) was designed specifically for the USGS Woods Hole Science Center's 26-foot research boat Rafael. This system is equipped with two video cameras (Subsea Video System color CCD camera and high-resolution B/W CCD camera), a digital still camera (Canon G12), and a Van Veen grab sampler. This system, weighing approximately 201 lbs, can be used to depths up to 40 meters, or 75 meters with extra electrical cable attached, as done in this cruise. The grab itself is raised and lowered with a 3/16-inch Aramid fiber winch-line with a breaking strength of 5,600 pounds. The davit is secured when the Mini SEABOSS is in the water. The electrical cable is on a spring-wound take-up reel with electrical slip rings that is mounted aft of the sampler. This arrangement protects the 0.38-in. multi-conductor cable and keeps the Mini SEABOSS correctly oriented with the boat. This multi-conductor cable enables communication between the ship's lab and the Mini SEABOSS system. The digital camera, a Canon G12, is mounted in a machined Delrin housing with a flat port and is set for 3648 x 2736 pixel images at the "fine" setting for compression. Photographs are stored in the camera on an SD card. The system also has a 50 Watt/second flash unit (Ikelite Digital Substrobe DS51) powered by 8 AA batteries. Two battery-powered lasers are set 15 cm apart 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 battery powered laser is positioned at an angle so that when it intersects the other lasers, the Mini SEABOSS is at the optimum height 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.
  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?
    Date: 2014 (process 1 of 10)
    The USGS Mini SEABOSS system was deployed to capture still photos and video in the H12324 study area in Narragansett Bay. This system was used to obtain 2 to 7 still photographs at each station as the R/V Rafael drifted over the seabed for 2 to 5 minutes. The third laser on the system was set to an angle such that the optimum photograph height was 60 cm. The default focus on the camera was set to 50 cm. The imaged area is most often within .3 to 1 meter from left to right. Other camera settings are as follows: aperture is set at f/8; shutter speed is 1/250 second; standard color mode. The camera time is set to GMT. A total of 103 images of the seafloor were acquired. Full-resolution images have georeferencing information that was added to the header of each image (see other process steps), however, the navigation related to each photograph is also available in an Esri formatted shapefile: 2014-046_324botphotos.shp. These data can be downloaded from the following locations: https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2015/1149/data/botphotos/2014-046_324botphotos.zip; https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2015/1149/html/ofr20151149_catalog.html. Person who carried out this activity:
    Dann Blackwood
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Photographer
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    (508) 548-8700 x2227 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    dblackwood@usgs.gov
    Date: 2014 (process 2 of 10)
    The digital images were recorded on an SD memory card within the camera. The images were transferred from the camera to a hard drive at the end of the cruise. Person who carried out this activity:
    Dann Blackwood
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Photographer
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    (508) 548-8700 x2227 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    dblackwood@usgs.gov
    Date: 2014 (process 3 of 10)
    The original JPEG images were renamed from the sequential, camera automatic filename to a filename reflecting station location. This was done for each individual file in Windows Explorer. Person who carried out this activity:
    Katherine McMullen
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Field and Laboratory Technician
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    508-548-8700 x2277 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    kmcmullen@usgs.gov
    Date: 2014 (process 4 of 10)
    The full-resolution JPEG images (3648 x 2736 pixels) were downsampled using Photoshop CS to create JPEG images with medium resolution (600 x 450 pixels) and thumbnails (150 x 113 pixels). The filename indicates the image resolution. For instance, the full-resolution JPEG image, 324-1a.jpg, was downsampled to produce medium-resolution JPEG image, 324-1a_mr.jpg, and thumbnail 324-1a_tn.jpg. Person who carried out this activity:
    Katherine McMullen
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Field and Laboratory Technician
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    (508) 548-8700 x2277 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    kmcmullen@usgs.gov
    Date: 2015 (process 5 of 10)
    Three fields were added to the attribute table of the shapefile of photo locations: photo_name, date_exif, time_exif. These fields were added so that existing fields could be modified to meet the format requirements for accessing or adding to the Exif header. The photo_name added the ".JPG" extension to the PHOTO attribute. This enabled a script to access the individual photos. The field date_exif reformatted the DATE attribute to YYYYMMDD. The field time_exif reformatted the JDTIME attribute to HH:MM:SS. Person who carried out this activity:
    VeeAnn Cross
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Marine Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    (508) 548-8700 x2251 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    vatnipp@usgs.gov
    Date: 2015 (process 6 of 10)
    The photo locations were exported from ArcMap 9.3.1 using XTools Pro 7.1 as a comma-delimited text file. The attributes chosen for export were: LATITUDE, LONGITUDE, photo_name, date_exif, time_exif. A Python version 2.7.3 script (kate_write_exif.py) was then run that incorporated this information, along with additional information, into the appropriate locations in the EXIF header of each full-resolution JPEG image. The PYTHON script uses ExifTool (version 9.4.6.0) to write the information to the image headers of the full-resolution images. The full-resolution images will eventually be incorporated into the WHCMSC photo database and the EXIF header information is a requirement for the database.
    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
GPSDateStamp
    JPEG tags: The tag is listed along with the information used to populate it - which is the same for every image.
    Comment: Photograph of the sea floor in southern Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island from down-looking camera on the USGS SEABOSS deployed from the R/V Rafael during survey 2014-046-FA (http://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2014-046-FA). Released as part of publication DOI:10.3133/ofr20151149.
    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 in southern Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island from survey 2014-046-FA.
Artist: Katherine McMullen
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: Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, 2014-046-FA, SEABOSS, sea floor, USGS
CopyrightNotice: Public Domain - please credit U.S. Geological Survey
Caption-Abstract: Photograph of the sea floor in southern Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island from survey 2014-046-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 in southern Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island from survey 2014-046-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 -GPSDateStamp -GPSLongitude -GPSLatitude -n -Artist -Credit -comment -keywords -Caption -Copyright -CopyrightNotice -Caption-Abstract -ImageDescription full-res/*.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. Person who carried out this activity:
    VeeAnn Cross
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Marine Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    (508) 548-8700 x2251 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    vatnipp@usgs.gov
    Date: 09-May-2017 (process 7 of 10)
    Edits to the metadata were made to fix any errors that MP v 2.9.36 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.). Attempted to modify http to https where appropriate. The source information was incomplete and had to be modified to meet the standard. 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 Road
    Woods Hole, MA

    508-548-8700 x2251 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    vatnipp@usgs.gov
    Date: 20-Jul-2018 (process 8 of 10)
    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 9 of 10)
    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 10 of 10)
    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?
    Blackwood, D.S., and Parolski, K.F., 2001, Seabed observation and sampling system: Sea Technology February 2001, v. 44, no. 2, Sea Technology, Arlington, VA.

    McMullen, K.Y., Poppe, L.J., Signell, R.P., Denny, J.F., Crocker, J.M., Beaver, A.L., and Schattgen, P.T., 2007, Surficial geology in central Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island: Interpretations of sidescan sonar and multibeam bathymetry: Open-File Report 2006-1199, 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?
  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?
  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?
    All 103 images of the sea floor in the H12324 study area collected on R/V Rafael cruise 2014-046-FA with the mini SEABOSS system are included. Other photographs were collected during cruise 2014-046-FA that lie outside the study area. The naming convention for photographs is a 3-number location identification (324, referring to NOAA Survey H12324 in Narragansett Bay), dash, the station number, and a letter of the photograph at that station (multiple photos are often taken at a single location), underscore, and the resolution of the photograph if it is not full resolution (mr for medium resolution, and tn for thumbnail). For instance, 324-14a_mr.jpg is a photograph from Survey H12324, station 14, photo a, medium resolution and is in JPEG format.
  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?
    No additional checks for consistency were performed on this data.

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 (USGS) as the source of this information.
  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)
    Katherine McMullen
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Field and Laboratory Technician
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    (508) 548-8700 x2277 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    kmcmullen@usgs.gov
  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set? Downloadable Data: WinZipped files of medium-resolution images (11 MB) - 2014-046_324mid-res.zip WinZipped files of full-resolution images (243 MB) - 2014-046_324full-res.zip WinZipped files of thumbnail-resolution images (1 MB) - 2014-046_324thumbnails.zip
  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?
    Neither the U.S. Government, the Department of the Interior, nor the USGS, nor the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 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 or NOAA 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?
    These data are available as JPEG images. To utilize these data, the user must have an image viewer capable of opening JPEG images.

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 16-Nov-2021
Metadata author:
Katherine McMullen
U.S. Geological Survey
Field and Laboratory Technician
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole, MA
USA

(508) 548-8700 x2277 (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/open_file_report/ofr2015-1149/2014-046_324bphotographsmeta.faq.html>
Generated by mp version 2.9.50 on Tue Nov 16 10:06:52 2021