Swath Mapping Data Management Within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Abstract
In 1983, the United States proclaimed the establishment of a maritime Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extending beyond the territorial sea to a distance of 200 nautical miles from its coastline. The proclamation reserved for the U.S. the sovereign right to explore for, exploit, conserve, and manage all natural resources within this new 3.4 million square nautical mile territory, an area roughly 1.2 times the total U.S. land mass. In order to help determine the characteristics and resources of the U.S. EEZ, a detailed program was developed to systematically map the entire area using multi-beam swath sounding systems. The program is under the direction of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United States Department of Commerce. Field operations commenced in early 1984 as two NOAA ships, equipped with advanced bathymetric swath mapping and precision navigation capabilities, began surveying off the coast of central California. Two additional ships have been added since and, to date, 36,000 square nautical miles of bathymetric mapping have been completed, a product of 95,000 lineal nautical miles of swath sounding. With such an enormous amount of data produced by swath mapping systems, the necessity for a comprehensive data management program was recognized early in the project. This paper describes the two-level data management system that has evolved, the lower level utilized aboard NOAA ships that acquire and initially process swath data, and the upper level employed by the Ocean Mapping Section, which is responsible for receiving, verifying, final processing and archiving all bathymetric swath data.Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright
Any permission needed to incorporate material published elsewhere is the responsibility of the authors and it will be assumed that such permission has been maintained.
Authors should also bear the following points in mind:
- The title should be concise and reflect the subject matter
- Long passages of text should be avoided by the appropriate use of sub-titles
- References, which should include only publications cited, should be referenced in the text, thus (Smith, 1988), and be listed alphabetically in the Reference section conforming to the Harvard style. Some typical examples follow:
(i) References from Journals:
Anders, F.J. and Byrnes, M.R.(1991). “Accuracy of shoreline change rates as determined from maps and aerial photographs”, Shore and Beach, 59, pp. 17-26.
(ii) References from Books:
Foley, J.D., van Dam, A., Feiner, S. K. and Hughes, J.F. (1990), Computer Graphics – Principles and Practice, 2nd ed., Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.
(iii) References from the technical material or research literature:
Smith, A. (1988). Colour photomapping. Report NRC-01-512. National Research Centre. Ottawa, Canada.
(iv) References from a web site:
desJardins, M. (2005). How to succeed in postgraduate study, Applied Ecology Research Group, University of Canberra, viewed 26 April 2009, http://aerg.canberra.edu.au/jardins.t.htm.
Please note that articles will be returned to Authors who do not conform to the IHR referencing policy.
Certain articles, especially those dealing with historical aspects, may well have to quote unpublished, archival or 'cumbersome' material, some of which may require further explanation in note form. In such cases referred material can be cited using numbered superscripts in the text and the list of references thus replaced by a section headed 'Notes' in which explanation of the superscripts is given. Material which has been consulted but not specifically referred to in the text can be included in a separate 'Bibliography'.
Please note that references will not be checked by the Editor and the responsibility for the accuracy rests solely with the author(s).