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Data

All users are strongly encouraged to download the technical reports (such as the Data Acquisition and Processing Report) in conjunction with any data for a better understanding of the project details, and to guide them in determining appropriate data uses.

Benthic Habitat Viewer Database »

*The online Benthic Habitat Viewer (BHV) database provides **access to over 9,000 underwater seafloor images collected to support comprehensive seafloor characterization of the U.S. Caribbean (Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands). The database provides access to a library of underwater imagery, accompanied by information on image location, biological inventory, benthic habitat characterization, geomorphological structure, and seafloor terrain characteristics (i.e., bathymetry, slope, and rugosity). The database will continue to be updated with additional imagery as collected from future missions.

Benthic Habitat Camera System »

All data products are organized by individual project area. Some data products are also available as unified datasets encompassing the data from each of the mission years. The original full resolution datasets are in raw GSF, XTF, ALL and processed HDCS formats (along with the appropriate correctors), and are archived at the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). The following deliverables are available for download in zip format:

DISCLAIMER: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Biogeography Branch does not guarantee the accuracy of the geographic features or attributes contained in this data. Not for navigational use. Please see the technical documentation and the individual metadata records for each data set for complete information on its source, limitations, and proper use. Please cite any use of this data.

2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004

Mission 2012

Multibeam Bathymetry

Multibeam data were collected with a hull-mounted Simrad EM 1002 multibeam SONAR for water depths greater than 75 m, and with a moon pool flange-mounted Reson 7125 multibeam echosounder for areas shallower than 75 m. It was processed by a NOAA contractor using CARIS HIPS/SIPS v.7.1 software. Data was reduced to mean lower low water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS. All products in the 2012 study sites are in UTM zone 20N, datum NAD83. The products that include data for all the study sites (i.e., 2004-2012) are in UTM zone 20N, datum NAD83. Available bathymetry products include CARIS BAG files (Bathymetric Attributed Grid) and georeferenced TIFF images.

Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	CARIS BAG files:	TIFF Images (Georeferenced):
2004-2012 Unified - All Project Areas	n/a	10
2012 Unified - All Project Area	8	8
Northeast Grand Reserve, PR - South	4	4
Northeast Grand Reserve, PR - North	8	8

Multibeam Backscatter

Backscatter data were collected using a Simrad EM 1002 and a Seabat 7125 multibeam echosounder. The data were corrected for geometric and radiometric distortions using Geocoder. In particular, the following corrections were applied when artifacts were evident: AVG Flat, TX Power and RX Gain, Area Correction, Spherical Spreading, Tx and Rx Beam Patterns, Navigation attitude, Transducer Attitude and Slant-Range Distortion. The final mosaics were exported as GeoTIFFs in relative 8-bit (0 – 255) values for use in a GIS.

Multibeam Backscatter:
Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
Northeast Grand Reserve, PR - South	4
Northeast Grand Reserve, PR - North	8

Derived Products: Slope, Rugosity

ESRI grids and georeferenced TIFF images of multibeam bathymetry were used to calculate derived products, such as ESRI grids and georeferenced TIFF images of bathymetric slope and rugosity. Slope in degrees was calculated using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension, while rugosity was generated by the Jennesset toolset called the DEM (Digital Elevation Model) Surface Tools. More detailed information is available in the metadata of individual files.

Slope and Rugosity:
Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	Slope	Rugosity
Northeast Grand Reserve, PR - South	4	4
Northeast Grand Reserve, PR - North	8	8

Underwater Photography & Video Ground Truthing

A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and an underwater drop camera were used to acquire video and high resolution still photos of the seafloor. The locations of these videos and photos are available for download (below) as point and polyline ESRI shapefiles in NAD83 UTM 20N. These videos and photos will be manually classified by Biogeography Branch scientists, and partitioned into distinct geomorphological structure, biological cover and live coral cover categories. A map of the seafloor habitats in the Virgin Passage and St. John Shelf will be developed by integrating this ground truthing dataset with the spatially coincident multibeam imagery.

ROV Transects:
Northeast Grand Reserve, PR	ROV 2012 Points	ROV 2012 Lines

Mission 2011

LiDAR Bathymetry

LiDAR bathymetry data were collected using a LADS (Laser Airborne Depth Sounder) Mark II Airborne System that was flown by Fugro LADS. Surveys were conducted in the St. Thomas/St. John study areas on 13 separate dates between 1/29/11-2/28/11, and in St. Croix on 2/21/11 and 2/22/11. The data was processed by a Fugro contractor using the LADS Mk II Ground System, and later using CARIS BASE Editor 3.2.0 software. Data was reduced to mean lower low water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS. All products are in UTM zone 20N, datum NAD83. A NOAA contractor produced the available georeferenced TIFF bathymetry products using ArcGIS 10.0.

Project Area	Bathymetric Dataset Resolution
St. Thomas/St.John	3
Buck Island	3
Salt River	5

LiDAR Reflectance

LiDAR relative reflectance (RR) data were collected using the same LADS (Laser Airborne Depth Sounder) Mark II Airborne System. However unlike the bathymetry processing workflow, which only considers the leading edge of the return waveform, RR processing requires an integration of the entire return pulse. Fugro contractors took into account several sources of the pulse energy loss that would distort the seabed reflectivity during this processing. Included among these were air/water interface and water column losses, as well as optical filtering, receiver field of view, and other system-specific losses. The RR as calculated for each pulse therefore represents the ratio between the received (normalized) energy and the transmitted energy. The entire cleaned dataset was then scaled by a NOAA contractor to ensure the full dynamic range is used over the dataset, and later exported as GeoTIFFs in relative 8-bit (0-255) values for use in a GIS.

TIFF Images (Georeferenced)
Project Area	Resolution (meters)
St. Thomas/St.John	3.3
Buck Island	3
Salt River	5

Multibeam Bathymetry

Multibeam data were collected with a hull-mounted Simrad EM 1002 multibeam SONAR for water depths greater than 75 m, and with a moon pool flange-mounted Reson 7125 multibeam echosounder for areas shallower than 75 m. It was processed by a NOAA contractor using CARIS HIPS/SIPS v.7.1 software. Data was reduced to mean lower low water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS. All products in the 2011 study sites are in UTM zone 20N, datum NAD83. The products that include data for all the study sites (i.e., 2004-2011) are in UTM zone 19N, datum NAD83. Available bathymetry products include CARIS BAG files (Bathymetric Attributed Grid), an ESRI Grid for the multi-year unified bathymetry, and georeferenced TIFF images.

Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	CARIS BAG files:	ESRI Grids:	TIFF Images (Georeferenced):
2011 Unified - All Project Areas	n/a	8	8
St. Thomas Bank	2	n/a	2
St. John Shelf	2, 4, & 8	n/a	2, 4, & 8

Multibeam Backscatter

TIFF Images (Georeferenced):
Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
St. Thomas Bank	2
St. John Shelf	2 & 4

Derived Products: Slope, Rugosity

Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	Rugosity	Slope
St. Thomas Bank	2	2
St. John Shelf	2, 4, & 8	2, 4, & 8

Underwater Photography & Video Ground Truthing

Shapefiles:
Shapefile Type	File name
Drop Camera (Point)	dropcamera_2011_points
Drop Camera (Polyline)	dropcamera_2011_lines
ROV (Point)	rov_2011_points
ROV (Polyline)	rov_2011_lines

Mission 2010

Multibeam Bathymetry

Multibeam data were collected with a hull-mounted Simrad EM 1002 multibeam SONAR for water depths greater than 75 m, and with a moon pool flange-mounted Reson 7125 multibeam echosounder for areas shallower than 75 m. It was processed by a NOAA contractor using CARIS HIPS/SIPS v.7.0 software. Data was reduced to mean lower low water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS. All products in the 2010 study sites are in UTM zone 20N, datum NAD83. The products that include data for all the study sites (i.e., 2004-2010) are in UTM zone 19N, datum NAD83. Available bathymetry products include ASCII XYZ text files (comma delimited with easting, northing, and depth in meters), an ESRI Grid for the multi-year unified bathymetry, and georeferenced TIFF images.

Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	ASCII XYZ text files:	ESRI Grids:	TIFF Images (Georeferenced):
			Bathymetry	Sun Illuminated Bathymetry
2004 - 2010 Unified - All Project Areas	n/a	10	n/a	n/a
2010 Unified - All Project Areas	n/a	n/a	8	n/a
Virgin Passage	1	n/a	1	1
St. John Shelf	1 & 8	n/a	1 & 8	1 & 8

Multibeam Backscatter

TIFF Images (Georeferenced):
Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
Virgin Passage	1
St. John Shelf	1

Derived Products: Slope, Rugosity

ESRI grids and georeferenced TIFF images of multibeam bathymetry were used to calculate derived products, such as ESRI grids and georeferenced TIFF images of bathymetric slope and rugosity. Slope in degrees was calculated using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension, while rugosity was generated by the ArcGIS toolset called the Benthic Terrain Modeler (BTM). More detailed information is available in the metadata of individual files.

Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	Rugosity	Slope
2004 – 2010 Unified - All Project Areas	10	10
2010 Unified - All Project Areas	8	8
Virgin Passage	1	1
St. John Shelf	1 & 8	1 & 8

Underwater Photography & Video Ground Truthing

Shapefiles:
Shapefile Type	File name
Drop Camera (Point)	dropcamera_2010_points
Drop Camera (Polyline)	dropcamera_2010_lines
ROV (Point)	rov_2010_points
ROV (Polyline)	rov_2010_lines

Mission 2009

Multibeam Bathymetry

Multibeam data were collected with a hull-mounted Simrad EM 1002 multibeam SONAR for water depths greater than 75 m, and with a moon pool flange-mounted Reson 7125 multibeam echosounder for areas shallower than 75 m. It was processed by a NOAA contractor using CARIS HIPS/SIPS v.6.1 software. Data will be reduced to mean lower low water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS. All products limited to 2009 study sites will be in UTM zone 20N, datum NAD83. For those with an expanded extent that includes 2004-2009 sites, the data will be projected in UTM zone 19N, datum NAD83.

Available bathymetry products include ASCII XYZ text files (comma delimited with easting, northing, and depth in meters values), an ESRI Grid for the multi-year unified bathymetry, and georeferenced TIFF images.

Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	ASCII XYZ text files:	ESRI Grids:	TIFF Images (Georeferenced):
			Bathymetry	Sun Illuminated Bathymetry
2004/2005/2006/2007/2008/2009 Unified - All Project Areas	n/a	10	n/a	n/a
2009 Unified - All Project Areas	n/a	n/a	2	n/a
South Bank	2	n/a	2	9
El Seco	1	n/a	1	9

Multibeam Backscatter

TIFF Images (Georeferenced):
Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
South Bank	3
El Seco	.75

Derived Products: Slope, Rugosity

ESRI grids and georeferenced TIFF images of multibeam bathymetry were used to calculate derived products, such as ESRI grids and georeferenced TIFF images of bathymetric slope and rugosity. Slope in degrees was calculated using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension, while rugosity was generated by the ArcGIS toolset called the Benthic Terrain Modeler (BTM). More detailed information is available in the metadata of individual files.

Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	Rugosity	Slope
2004/2005/2006/2007/2008/2009 Unified - All Project Areas	10	10
2009 Unified - All Project Areas	2	2
South Bank	2	2
El Seco	1	1

Underwater Photography & Video Ground Truthing

An underwater drop camera, equipped with GPS, lasers, a video camera and a high resolution still camera, was used to acquire seafloor groundtruthing observations. The resulting video data was manually classified by Biogeography Branch scientists into structure, substrate, and biotic cover categories, as well as degree of vertical relief. The classified habitat data is available as an ESRI shapefile in UTM projection, and the original video is available in Windows media video format (.wmv). The point shapefile contains the individual data points and associated habitat information, while the line shapefile merely reflects transect location and contains no individual data points.

Shapefiles:
Shapefile Type	File name
Point	Available Soon
Line	Available Soon

Mission 2008

Multibeam Bathymetry

Multibeam data were collected with a hull-mounted Simrad EM 1002 multibeam SoNAR and was processed by a NOAA contractor using CARIS HIPS/SIPS v.6.1 software. Data was reduced to mean lower low water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS and are in UTM zone 19N, datum NAD83. The one exception is the Vieques Island area, which is projected in UTM zone 20N. Available bathymetry products include ASCII XYZ text files (comma delimited with easting, northing, and depth in meters), ESRI Grids, and georeferenced TIFF images (color by depth, sun illuminated with azimuth option 1, sun illuminated with azimuth option 2).

Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	ASCII XYZ text files:	ESRI Grids:	TIFF Images (Georeferenced):
			Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 1	Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 2
2004 - 2008 Unified - All Project Areas	n/a	9	n/a	n/a
2008 Unified - All Project Areas	n/a	9	n/a	n/a
Tourmaline Bank	3, 6, 9 Combined	3, 6, 9 Combined	9	9
Mona Island (north)	3, 6, 9 Combined	3, 6, 9 Combined	9	9
Vieques Island	3	3	3	n/a

Multibeam Backscatter

Backscatter was collected with a hull-mounted Simrad EM 1002 multibeam SONAR. The data were corrected for geometric and radiometric distortions using Geocoder 3.2.1. In particular, the following corrections were applied when artifacts were evident: AVG Trend, TX Power and RX Gain, Area Correction, Spreading, Slant-Range and Beam Pattern. The final mosaics were exported in dBs (decibels) as ESRI GRIDs for use in a GIS.

TIFF Images (Georeferenced):
Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
Tourmaline Bank	3
Mona Island (north)	3
Vieques Island	3

Derived Products: Slope, Rugosity

ESRI grids of multibeam bathymetry were used to calculate derived products, such as ESRI grids of bathymetric slope and rugosity. Slope in degrees was calculated using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension, while rugosity was generated by the ArcGIS toolset called the Benthic Terrain Modeler (BTM). More detailed information is available in the metadata of individual files.

Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	Rugosity	Slope
2004 - 2008 Unified - All Project Areas	10	10
2008 Unified - All Project Areas	9	9
Tourmaline Bank	3, 6, 9, Combined	3, 6, 9, Combined
Mona Island (north)	3, 6, 9, Combined	3, 6, 9, Combined
Vieques Island	3	3

Underwater Photography & Video Ground Truthing

Underwater photos and videos were collected using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) between 02/25/2008 and 03/08/2008 around Isla de Mona and west of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico in the U.S. Caribbean. The ESRI shapefiles (available for download below) denote their geographic location. These photos and videos will be manually classified into different habitat classes, and integrated with the abiotic data collected by SoNAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging) systems to develop a benthic habitat map for the U.S. Caribbean. Habitat maps describe the location of habitat features (in relation to the shoreline), their physical composition and the types of organisms that colonize them. Fundamentally, habitat maps provide critical information about the extent, health and composition of marine resources, which is vital for communicating information about the distribution and abundance of species to resource managers, scientists and the public.

Shapefiles:
Shapefile Type	File name
Point	rov_2008_transects_points
Line	rov_2008_transects_lines

Mission 2007

Multibeam Bathymetry

Multibeam data was collected with a hull-mounted Simrad EM 1002 and a hull-mounted Reson 8124 multibeam SONAR and were processed by a NOAA contractor using CARIS HIPS/SIPS v.6.1 software. Data will be reduced to mean lower low water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS and will be in UTM zones 19, datum NAD83.

Available bathymetry products include ESRI Grids, and georeferenced TIFF images (sun illuminated with azimuth option 1, sun illuminated with azimuth option 2).

Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	ASCII XYZ text files:	ESRI Grids:	TIFF Images (Georeferenced):
			Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 1	Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 2
2004/2005/2006/2007 Unified - All Project Areas	n/a	10	n/a	n/a
2007 Unified - All Project Areas	10	10	n/a	n/a
Bajo de Cico	3, 5, 10	3, 5, 10	3, 5, 10	3, 5, 10
Abrir La Sierra Bank	3, 5, 10	3, 5, 10	3, 5, 10	3, 5, 10
Mona Island (south)	3, 5, 10	3, 5, 10	3, 5, 10	3, 5, 10

Multibeam Backscatter

Backscatter was collected with a hull-mounted Simrad EM 1002 and a hull-mounted Reson 8124 multibeam SONAR. The data (in Simrad and XTF formats) were corrected for geometric and radiometric distortions using Geocoder 3.0. In particular, the following corrections were applied when artifacts were evident: AVG Trend, TX Power and RX Gain, Area Correction, Spreading, Slant-Range and Beam Pattern. The final mosaics were exported in dBs (decibels) as geotiffs for use in a GIS.

TIFF Images (Georeferenced):
Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
Bajo de Cico	1
Abrir La Sierra Bank	1
Mona Island (south)	2

Derived Products: Slope, Rugosity

Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	Rugosity	Slope
2004/2005/2006/2007 Unified - All Project Areas	10	10
2007 Unified - All Project Areas	10	10
Bajo de Cico	3, 5, 10	3, 5, 10
Abrir La Sierra Bank	3, 5, 10	3, 5, 10
Mona Island (south)	3, 5, 10	3, 5, 10

ROV Groundtruthing- Habitat Classifications

Shapefiles:
Shapefile Type	File name
Point	NF-07-06_ROV_Transects_Points.zip
Line	Available Soon

Mission 2006

Multibeam Bathymetry

Multibeam data was collected with a hull-mounted Simrad EM 1002 multibeam sonar and will be processed by a NOAA contractor using CARIS HIPS/SIPS v.6.0 software. Data will be reduced to mean lower low water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS and will be in UTM zones 19 and 20, datum NAD83.

Available bathymetry products include ASCII XYZ text files (comma delimited with easting, northing, and depth in meters values), ESRI Grids, and georeferenced TIFF images (color by depth, sun illuminated with azimuth option 1, sun illuminated with azimuth option 2).

Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	ASCII XYZ text files:	ESRI Grids:	TIFF Images (Georeferenced):
			Color By Depth	Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 45	Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 315	Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 225
2004/2005/2006 Unified- All Project Areas	10	10	10	n/a	n/a	n/a
2006 Unified - All Project Areas	10	10	10	n/a	n/a	n/a
Buck Island- NPS Monument (St. Croix)	3	3	2	10	10	n/a
La Parguera (Puerto Rico)	3	3	2	10	n/a	10

Multibeam Backscatter

Backscatter was collected with a hull-mounted Simrad EM 1002 multibeam sonar. The data (in Simrad format) were corrected for geometric and radiometric distortions using Geocoder 2.8. In particular, the following corrections were applied when artifacts were evident: AVG Trend, TX Power and RX Gain, Area Correction, Spreading, Slant-Range and Beam Pattern. The final mosaics were exported in dBs (decibels) as geotiffs for use in a GIS.

TIFF Images (Georeferenced):
Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
2006 Unified- All Project Areas	3
Buck Island- NPS Monument (St. Croix)	3
La Parguera ( Puerto Rico)	3

Derived Products: Slope, Rugosity

ESRI grids of multibeam bathymetry were used to calculate derived products, such as ESRI grids of bathymetric slope and rugosity. Slope in degrees was calculated using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension, while rugosity was generated by the ArcGIS toolset known as the Benthic Terrain Modeler (BTM). More detailed information is available in the metadata of individual files.

Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	Rugosity	Slope
2004/2005/2006 Unified- All Project Areas	10	10
2006 Unified - All Project Areas	10	10
Buck Island- NPS Monument (St. Croix)	3	3
La Parguera (Puerto Rico)	3	3

ROV Groundtruthing- Habitat Classifications

A Seaeye Falcon Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), run by SeaVision Marine Services, with an attached underwater video camera was used to acquire seafloor groundtruthing observations. The resulting video data was manually classified by Biogeography Branch scientists into structure, substrate, and biotic cover categories, as well as degree of vertical relief. The classified habitat data is available as an ESRI shapefile in UTM projection, and the original video is available in Windows media video format (.wmv). The point shapefile contains the individual data points and associated habitat information, while the line shapefile merely reflects transect location and contains no individual data points. For a full description of the video classification methodology, download this summary of 2006 ROV Video Classification Methodology.

Shapefiles:
Shapefile Type	File name
Point	NF-06-03_ROV_Transects_Points
Line	NF-06-03_ROV_Transects_Lines

LiDAR Bathymetry & Reflectivity

These images were collected in southwestern Puerto Rico between 4/7/2006 and 5/15/2006 using a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) ADS Mk II Airborne System. The 900 Hertz (1064 nm) A Nd: Yag laser acquired 4x4 meter spot spacing and 200% seabed coverage. In total, 265 square nautical miles of LiDAR were collected between -20 m (topographic) and up to 50 m (depth). The spatial resolution of the bathymetric surface is 4 meters. The spatial resolution of the reflectivity surface is 5 meters. Please see the DAPR, Reflectivity Descriptive Report and the dataset metadata files for more details.

TIFF Images (Georeferenced)
Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	Bathymetry	Reflectivity
Southwest Puerto Rico	4	5

Mission 2005

Multibeam Bathymetry

Multibeam data was collected with a pole-mounted Reson 8101 multibeam sonar and processed by a NOAA contractor using CARIS HIPS/SIPS v.5.4 software. Data has been reduced to mean lower low water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS and are in UTM zone 20, datum WGS84.

Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	ASCII XYZ text files	ESRI Grids	TIFF Images (Georeferenced)
			Color By Depth	Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 45	Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 135
2004/2005 Unified- All Project Areas	5	5	5	n/a	n/a
2005 Unified - All Project Areas	2	2	2	n/a	n/a
NPS Inshore (St. John)	1	1	1	1	1
NPS Offshore (St. John)	2	2	2	2	2
Buck Channel (St. Croix)	1	1	1	1	1
Salt River (St. Croix)	2	2	2	2	2
Grammanik Bank	2	2	2	2	2
Mid Shelf Reef (MSR)	1	1	1	1	1

Multibeam Backscatter

Backscatter was collected with a pole-mounted Reson 8101 multibeam sonar. The data (in Generic Sensor Format) from Grammanik Bank and the Mid Shelf Reef were processed by the University of Hawaii's Hawaii Mapping Research Group (HMRG) using the HAWAII MR1 Sidescan Sonar Software Suite. The data were corrected for angle varying gain, transmit power and pulse width. Electronic and acoustic noise, such as striping due to across track variations in amplitude and speckling due to transducer motion, were removed.

The data (in Generic Sensor Format) from Salt River and the Buck Channel, St. Croix were corrected for geometric and radiometric distortions using Geocoder 2.8. In particular, the following corrections were applied when artifacts were evident: AVG Trend, TX Power and RX Gain, Area Correction, Spreading, Slant-Range and Beam Pattern. The final mosaics for all areas were exported as geotiffs for use in a GIS.

TIFF Images (Georeferenced):
Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
Buck Channel (St. Croix)	1
Salt River (St. Croix)	2
Grammanik Bank (East)	.5
Grammanik Bank (West)	.5
Mid Shelf Reef	.5
NPS Inshore (St. John)	1
NPS Offshore (St. John)	1

Derived Products: Slope, Rugosity

ESRI grids of multibeam bathymetry were used to calculate derived products, such as ESRI grids of bathymetric slope and rugosity. Slope in degrees was calculated using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension, while rugosity was generated by the ArcGIS toolset known as the Benthic Terrain Modeler (BTM). More detailed information is available in the metadata of individual files.


Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	Rugosity	Slope
2005 Unified - All Project Areas	5	5
NPS Inshore ( St. John )	1	1
NPS Offshore ( St. John )	2	2
Buck Channel ( St. Croix )	1	1
Salt River ( St. Croix )	2	2
Grammanik Bank	2	2
Mid Shelf Reef (MSR)	1	1

ROV Groundtruthing- Habitat Classifications

A Phantom S2 Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) with an attached underwater video camera was used to acquire seafloor groundtruthing observations. The resulting video data was manually classified by Biogeography Branch scientists, at 10 second interval test locations, into structure, substrate, and biotic cover categories, as well as degree of vertical relief. The classified habitat data is available as an ESRI shapefile in UTM projection. The point shapefile contains the individual data points and associated habitat information, while the line shapefile merely reflects transect location and contains no individual data points. For a full description of the video classification methodology, download this summary of 2005 ROV Video Classification Methodology.

Shapefiles:
Shapefile Type	File name
Point	NF-05-05_ROV_Transects_Points
Line	NF-05-05_ROV_Transects_Lines

Mission 2004

All data products are organized by island project area -St. Croix ( Buck Island ), St. Thomas, and St. John. The original full resolution dataset in raw XTF format, along with the appropriate correctors, is archived at the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC).The following deliverables are available for download in zip format:

Multibeam Bathymetry

Available bathymetry products include ASCII XYZ text files (comma delimited with values of easting, northing, and depth in meters), ESRI Grids, georeferenced TIFF images (color by depth, sun illuminated with azimuth 225, sun illuminated with azimuth 315), and non-georeferenced JPEG sample graphics. Due to the large size of the St. John project area, the 1m resolution XYZ files and ESRI Grids for St. John have been subdivided into four smaller areas which must be downloaded separately. The component project areas, named 1-4 from west to east, are shown together in this Overview graphic for reference.


Project Area	Resolution (in meters)					Bathymetry DTM	Backscatter Mosaic
	ASCII XYZ text files:	ESRI Grids:	TIFF Images (Georeferenced):			Sample JPEG Graphics (Non-georeferenced):
			Color by Depth	Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 225	Sun Illuminated- Azimuth 315
St. Croix	1	1	5	5	5	STC Bathymetry Sample	STC Backscatter Sample
St. John	1	1	5	5	5	STJ Bathymetry Sample	STJ Backscatter Sample
St. Thomas	1	1	5	5	5	STT Bathymetry Sample	STT Backscatter Sample

Multibeam Backscatter

Backscatter was collected with a pole-mounted Reson 8101 multibeam sonar. The data (in Generic Sensor Format) were corrected for geometric and radiometric distortions using Geocoder 2.7. In particular, the following corrections were applied when artifacts were evident: AVG Trend, TX Power and RX Gain, Area Correction, Spreading, Slant-Range and Beam Pattern. The final mosaics were exported as geotiffs for use in a GIS.

TIFF Images (Georeferenced):
Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
St. Croix	0.5
St. John	0.5
St. Thomas	0.5

Derived Products: Slope, Rugosity

ESRI grids of multibeam bathymetry were used to calculate derived products, such as ESRI grids of bathymetric slope and rugosity. Slope in degrees was calculated using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension, while rugosity was generated by the ArcGIS toolset known as the Benthic Terrain Modeler (BTM). More detailed information is available in the metadata of individual files.


Project Area	Resolution (in meters)
	Rugosity:	Slope:
2004 Unified- All Project Areas	n/a	n/a
St. Croix	1	1
St. John	1	1
St. Thomas	1	1

ROV Groundtruthing- Habitat Classifications

Shapefiles:
Shapefile Type	File name
Point	minibat_2004_points
Line	minibat_2004_lines