This report contains several data layers (or themes) that can be used to create views of the Woods Hole study area. GeoTIFF files (GeoTIFFs) produced from the NOAA multibeam bathymetric and sidescan-sonar surveys are provided in geographic and Universal Transverse Mercator (Zone 19) projections. GeoTIFFs of the bathymetry are in color and hillshaded; GeoTIFFs of the sidescan imagery are in grayscale. ArcRaster grids of the multibeam bathymetric data, which are provided in 0.5-m and 1.5-m versions, are also provided in geographic and Universal Transverse Mercator projections. Available vector data consist of polygon shapefile data layers that provide the coastline for the Massachusetts Geographic Information System (GIS) project area, an outline of the survey area, and interpretive data layers.

Data layers are provided with geographic coordinates to allow the data to be integrated into a GIS.  A GIS is defined as a system of hardware and software to support the display, manipulation, and analysis of spatial data for mapping and complex data solving.  This integrated package provides researchers the ability to integrate, analyze, and map the various data sets to help with economic and social policy-making decisions regarding the environment.

Data layers archived here should not require additional processing to be utilized within the Environmental Systems Research Institute's (ESRI) ArcView and ArcGIS software. This does not mean that a user will not wish to do additional processing, especially if utilizing a different GIS software package or spheroid, but that it is not necessary to do additional processing simply to utilize the data in its minimum archive format.

For users who do not have the ESRI software or a compatible GIS data browser available on their computer, a free viewer, ArcExplorer, is available from ESRI here. The key functionality of ArcExplorer is the viewing of spatial data. The user will need to add the selected data layers by using ArcExplorer's add data button. 

Each GIS data layer from this publication is cataloged below for easy access. The individual data layers are described below and include the GeoTIFF, grid, or shapefile name (for example, h11077_mb0.5m_utm19.tif), which is linked to a browse graphic showing the data-layer extent and coverage. Selecting the data-layer name will cause the browse graphic to be displayed in a separate browser window.

When this report is accessed from the DVD-ROM, the top level of the report contains an ArcView project file (h11077.apr) created in ArcView 3.3 and an ESRI ArcMap document (h11077.mxd) created in ArcMap 9.2, but saved as an ArcMap 9.0/9.1 document to make it accessible to older versions of the software.

Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata for the individual data layers are  provided in HTML, FAQ html, and text versions. Selecting associated metadata files from the table below will cause the information to appear in a new browser window.

A "zip" compressed, downloadable archive file containing the components of the ArcView shapefile for each data layer is also provided. Compressed downloadable files were created using the Windows program WINZIP v8.0. For those users who do not have software capable of uncompressing the archived zip files, a free version of the software can be obtained from Winzip Computing, Inc., or Pkware, Inc.

MULTIBEAM BATHYMETRIC IMAGERY

SIDESCAN-SONAR IMAGERY

MULTIBEAM BATHYMETRIC GRIDS

INTERPRETIVE DATA LAYERS

VERIFICATION DATA LAYERS

BASE-MAP DATA