H11322_1M_SSS_GEO.TIF: 1-m Sidescan-Sonar Image of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Survey H11322 in Western Rhode Island Sound (Geographic)

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Frequently-anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
H11322_1M_SSS_GEO.TIF: 1-m Sidescan-Sonar Image of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Survey H11322 in Western Rhode Island Sound (Geographic)
Abstract:
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is working cooperatively with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to interpret the surficial geology in estuaries along the coast of the northeastern United States. The purpose of our present study is to define the sea floor morphology and sedimentary environments in an area of Rhode Island Sound using sidescan-sonar and bathymetric data collected aboard the NOAA Ship RUDE, as well as historic seismic records. The mosaic, bathymetry, and their interpretations serve many purposes, including: (1) defining the geological variability of the sea floor, which is one of the primary controls of benthic habitat diversity; (2) improving our understanding of the processes that control the distribution and transport of bottom sediments and their distribution of benthic habitats and associated infaunal community structures; and (3) providing a detailed framework for future research, monitoring, and management activities. The sidescan-sonar mosaics and bathymetry images also serve as base maps for subsequent sedimentological, geochemical, and biological observations, because precise information on environmental setting is important for selection of sampling sites and for accurate interpretations of point measurements.
  1. How should this data set be cited?

    U.S. Geological Survey, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2009, H11322_1M_SSS_GEO.TIF: 1-m Sidescan-Sonar Image of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Survey H11322 in Western Rhode Island Sound (Geographic): Open-File Report 2008-1181, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Science Center, Woods Hole, MA.

    Online Links:

    This is part of the following larger work.

    McMullen, K.Y., Poppe, L.J., Haupt, T.A., and Crocker, J.M., 2009, Sidescan-Sonar Imagery and Surficial Geologic Interpretations of the Sea Floor in Western Rhode Island Sound: Open-File Report 2008-1181, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Science Center, Woods Hole, MA.

    Online Links:

  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?

    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -71.443862
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -71.318975
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 41.336383
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 41.246554

  3. What does it look like?

    <http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1181/data/sidescan/geo/h11322_1m_sss_geo/h11322_1m_sss_geo.gif> (GIF)
    Overview of sidescan-sonar mosaic of NOAA Survey H11322 in geographic

  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?

    Beginning_Date: 06-Jul-2004
    Ending_Date: 16-Jul-2004
    Currentness_Reference: ground condition

  5. What is the general form of this data set?

    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: remote-sensing image

  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. It contains the following raster data types:

      • Dimensions 9993 x 13893 x 1, type Pixel

    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 0.000009. Longitudes are given to the nearest 0.000009. 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?

    ObjectID
    Internal feature number. (Source: ESRI)

    Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.

    Value
    Internal feature number (Source: ESRI)

    Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.

    Count
    Internal feature number (Source: ESRI)

    Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.

    Entity_and_Attribute_Overview:
    Attribute information appears when statistics are calculated on the image. Pixel data values range from 0 to 254. Background no data value is 255.

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)

  2. Who also contributed to the data set?

  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?

    Katherine McMullen
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Sediment Lab Technician
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA 02543
    USA

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

Why was the data set created?

To release a 1-m per pixel GeoTIFF image of the completed sidescan-sonar mosaic collected as a component of the H11322 Survey in Rhode Island Sound in a Geographic coordinate system. Light tones represent relatively harder returns, higher backscatter, and generally coarser sediments. Dark tones represent relatively softer returns, lower backscatter, and generally finer grained sediments.

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?

    raw sidescan-sonar data (source 1 of 1)
    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, raw sidescan-sonar data.

    Source_Contribution:
    Original sidescan-sonar data acquired during National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Survey H11322.

  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?

    Date: 2004 (process 1 of 4)
    The data for this survey were acquired in XTF (extended Triton data format) using a high-resolution Klein 5500. The Klein 5500 tow fish emits five beams on each side of the ship track and transmits at 455 kHz. The sidescan-sonar data were digitally recorded in XTF format using an ISIS data acquisition software package.

    Person who carried out this activity:

    Atlantic Hydrographic Branch, NOAA
    439 West York Street
    Norfolk, VA 23510
    USA

    Data sources produced in this process:
    • XTF sidescan-sonar data

    Date: 2008 (process 2 of 4)
    All sidescan-sonar data were processed using USGS sidescan-sonar processing software packages XSonar and ShowImage. A median filtering routine was applied to the sidescan-sonar data to remove speckle noise. Sonar data were further processed to correct for slant-range and radiometric distortion inherent in the sonar data. Sonar data were corrected for layback. All processed data were mosaicked using XSonar, resulting in an enhanced, geographically correct, sidescan-sonar mosaic with 1 meter/pixel resolution. The composite mosaic was converted to a TIFF image using Adobe Photoshop CS2.

    An associated TIFF world file was then created using GeoTiffExaminer

    Person who carried out this activity:

    Katherine McMullen
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA 02543
    USA

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

    Data sources used in this process:
    • XTF sidescan-sonar data

    Data sources produced in this process:

    • mosaic2.tif
    • mosaic2.tfw

    Date: 2008 (process 3 of 4)
    Image was projected from UTM zone 19 WGS84 to geographic WGS84 with ArcToolbox Project Raster Tool using transformation 1 and nearest neighbor resampling technique. ArcGIS 9.2.

    Person who carried out this activity:

    Katherine McMullen
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Sediment Lab Technician
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA 02543
    USA

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

    Data sources used in this process:
    • mosaic2.tif

    Data sources produced in this process:

    • h11322_1m_sss_geo.tif

    Date: 2008 (process 4 of 4)
    Geographic information from the world file was written into TIFF using GeoTiffExamine.

    Person who carried out this activity:

    Katherine McMullen
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Sediment Lab Technician
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA 02543
    USA

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

    Data sources used in this process:
    • h11322_1m_sss_geo.tif
    • h11322_1m_sss_geo.tfw

    Data sources produced in this process:

    • h11322_1m_sss_geo.tif

  3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?

    Danforth, W.W., 1997, Xsonar/ShowImage: A Complete System for Rapid Sidescan-Sonar Processing and Display: Open-File Report 97-686, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Science Center, Woods Hole, MA.

    McMullen, K.Y., Poppe, L.J., Twomey, E.R., Danforth, W.W., Haupt, T.A., and Crocker, J.M., 2007, Sidescan-Sonar Imagery, Multibeam Bathymetry, and Surficial Geologic Interpretations of the Sea Floor in Rhode Island Sound, off Sakonnet Point, Rhode Island: Open-File Report 2007-1150, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Science Center, Woods Hole, MA.

    Online Links:

    McMullen, K.Y., Poppe, L.J., Denny, J.F., Haupt, T.A., and Crocker, J.M., 2008, Sidescan-Sonar Imagery and Surficial Geologic Interpretations of the Sea Floor in Central Rhode Island Sound: Open-File Report 2007-1366, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Science Center, Woods Hole, MA.

    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 was by differential GPS.

  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?

  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?

    All collected data were processed and used to generate the digital mosaic.

  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?

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 are freely redistributable with proper metadata and source attribution. Please recognize the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as the originators of this dataset.

  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)

    Lawrence Poppe
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA 02543
    USA

    (508) 548-8700 x2314 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    lpoppe@usgs.gov

  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set?

    Downloadable Data: 1-m sidescan-sonar image of Survey H11322

  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?

    Neither the U.S. Government, the Department of the Interior, nor the USGS, 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 in the use of these data or related materials.

  4. How can I download or order the data?

  5. What hardware or software do I need in order to use the data set?

    This image is available as a GeoTIFF image with an accompanying world file. To utilize this data, the user must have an image viewer, image processing or GIS software package capable of importing a GeoTIFF image.

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 16-Jan-2009
Metadata author:
U.S. Geological Survey
c/o Katherine McMullen
Sediment Lab Technician
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole, MA 02543
USA

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

Metadata standard:
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)
Metadata extensions used:

Generated by mp version 2.8.25 on Fri Jan 16 11:52:47 2009