Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center (PIBHMC), Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
200606
CRED Optical Validation Data at French Frigate Shoals, 2005, to Support Benthic Habitat Mapping
Video imagery, track line navigation files, and log sheets
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pibhmc/
Optical validation data were collected using a Tethered Optical Assessment Device (TOAD), an underwater sled
equipped with an underwater digital video camera and lights. Data were collected at French Frigate Shoals in the
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to support Benthic Habitat Mapping efforts.
This data provides optical observations that will be correlated with bathymetry and acoustic backscatter imagery
to develop a benthic habitat map of French Frigate Shoals. Refer to supplemental information for description of
instrument and survey.
French Frigate Shoals is a large open atoll located at 23.75N, 166.2W. The underlying basalt
structure is estimated to be 13.8 million years old. Tern Island is the largest island at FFS and was enlarged by the
U.S. Navy just prior to World War II; numerous other small islets exist. The total land mass is only 0.23 sq. km but
the large reef and adjacent banks include 733 sq. km of coral habitat at depths of less than 100 m.
Optical validation data were collected using the Tethered Optical Assessment Device (TOAD), a sled equipped with
underwater video camera and lights. These data are used to provide ground-truth validation for benthic habitat maps
based on multibeam echosounder surveys. Camera sled deployments were conducted at night, usually between 1800 and
midnight. The duration of each tow varied but averaged about 40 minutes of bottom time at a given location. The camera
sled was deployed from lower arm of the starboard J-frame on the NOAA Ship Hi'ialakai. At each station the ship was
positioned with the wind on the starboard side and drifted downwind; occasional light turns were applied to the
ship's screws if necessary to reduce the ship's motion. The TOAD was lowered slowly to the bottom by the deck crew.
The operator monitored a live video feed from the camera and began recording data on two video tape recorders. When
the camera reached bottom the deck crew was notified by radio to stop lowering. The operator continued to monitor
the vehicle and provided commands to raise or lower it to keep the camera just above the bottom.
Equipment Description: The TOAD was deployed from the lower arm of the vessel's J-frame. The TOAD is a camera sled
based on the Guildline MiniBat model 8820 tow body. The frame has been extensively modified from its original
configuration and was equipped with an ROS model 54-00100-13 color underwater video camera as the primary data
collection instrument. The ROS camera was mounted to point at approximately a 45 degree angle toward the seafloor. A
Deep Sea Power and Light model 2050 MultiSeaCam low-light color video camera was also mounted on the sled and aimed
straight ahead. The signal from this camera was fed to a second video monitor to provide warning of underwater
obstructions the sled might be headed for. Illumination was provided by two 500 W DeepSea Power & Light Multi-SeaLite
model 1050 underwater lights mounted on the original sled frame. The lights were located near the base and each side
of the sled to provide the maximum possible horizontal distance from the ROS camera. An ORE Offshore model 4330B
Multibeacon was attached to the sled to provide a response to acoustic interrogations sent by the Hi'ialakai's Model
4410D-01 Trackpoint II Plus Ultrashort Baseline acoustic tracking system. Cable between the sled and the surface
consisted of a underwater electrical cable (cable 1, blue in color) with a separate load-bearing line to support the
sled frame. The electrical cable was clipped to the line at regular intervals upon deployment and removed upon
recovery. The load-bearing line was led to the starboard capstan on the aft deck. All TOAD surface components were
located in the Dry Lab in an equipment rack on the after bulkhead.
Name & address of person collecting data:
Joyce Miller
NOAA PIFSC
1125B Ala Moana Blvd
Honolulu, HI 98614
Data Files: Video data were recorded on two video tape recorders. The position of the camera sled was recorded using
Hypack Max version 02.012a survey software.
File naming convention: Each tow is given a name consisting of a 3-letter designator for the island area followed by
a two-digit year and three-digit tow number. For example, during HI0503 the first tow was called FFS05000. Video
tape labels and paper log forms are all annotated with the tow name. Data files recorded in Hypack software followed
their CHS filename format consisting of the year, the first two letters of the platform name, the Julian date, and
the hour and minute in which the file was started. For example, a file collected on July 18, 2005 (Julian date 199)
aboard the Hi'ialakai starting at time 1935 would be 2005HI1991935.
Time Correlation: All times are based on UTC. Four clocks were manually synchronized prior to starting data
collection; the clock in the video character generator that was used to annotate the video tape, in one of the video
cassette recorders, in the Trackpoint II system, and in the computer running the Hypack Max software. These clocks
were set to UTC at the beginning of each evening's operations.
Resource Description: Digital video images that are geo-referenced to navigation files.
20050629
ground condition
None Planned
-166.37278
-166.29838
23.78695
23.70212
CoRIS Theme Thesaurus
EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Aquatic Habitat > Benthic Habitat
EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef Monitoring and Assessment > Mapping
EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef Monitoring and Assessment > Photographic Analysis > Videography
None
Tethered Optical Assessment Device (TOAD)
Underwater video
HI0503
CoRIS Discovery Thesaurus
Visual Images > Habitats
ISO 19115 Topic Category
environment
biota
CoRIS Place Thesaurus
OCEAN BASIN > Pacific Ocean > Central Pacific Ocean > Northwestern Hawaiian Islands > French Frigate Shoals (24N166W0001)
COUNTRY/TERRITORY > United States of America > Hawaii > Honolulu > French Frigate Shoals (24N166W0001)
OCEAN BASIN > Pacific Ocean > Central Pacific Ocean > Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (28N178W0000)
COUNTRY/TERRITORY > United States of America > Hawaii > Honolulu > Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (28N178W0000)
CoRIS Region
NWHI
None
Please acknowledge the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Division, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center as
the source of this information.
Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center (PIBHMC), Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
John Rooney
mailing and physical address
1125B Ala Moana Blvd.
Honolulu
HI
96814
(808) 983-3776
(808) 983-2902
pibhmc@soest.hawaii.edu
e-mail preferred
http://data.nodc.noaa.gov/coris/data/NOAA/nmfs/pifsc/cred/TOADbrowse/TOAD_FFS_92dpi.jpg
French Frigate Shoals, NWHI: TOAD Tows and Multibeam Bathymetry
JPEG
Benthic Habitat Mapping Group, Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science
Center (PIFSC), NOAA
Not applicable
Unclassified
Not applicable
Unspecified
Complete
The horizontal position accuracy for the camera sled position is estimated at
plus or minus 60 meters. There are two primary sources of this error. The ship's positioning is based on GPS SPS,
often called standalone or non-differential GPS positioning. SPS has a measured accuracy of under 5 meters. The
position of the GPS antenna is referenced to the ship's granite block. The second and larger primary source of error
is uncertainty associated with the sled's position as reported by the Trackpoint II acoustic tracking system, which
is also referenced to the granite block.
After a tow was completed the video tape data was reviewed by spot-checking the master and backup
tape to verify that data were recorded.
Raw data files recorded using Hypack Max software include time, horizontal position, and ship's heading information
were copied from the acquisition computer to the data archive.
Tow-specific metadata were recorded in the data archive in the same location as the raw data, in a spreadsheet that
was then referred to in creating metadata records of each island where data were collected during the cruise. Raw
data files were exported as comma-delimited text files which were then imported into ArcGIS v8.3 and saved as shapefiles.
20050523
0.0001
0.0001
Decimal Degrees
D_WGS_1984
WGS_1984
6378137.000000
298.257224
No correction
0.1
meters
Attribute Values
Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center (PIBHMC), Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
John Rooney
mailing and physical address
1125B Ala Moana Blvd.
Honolulu
HI
96814
(808) 983-3776
(808) 983-2902
pibhmc@soest.hawaii.edu
e-mail preferred
Offline Data
These data are not to be used for navigational purposes. NOAA makes no warranty regarding these
data, expressed or implied, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty. NOAA cannot assume liability
for any damages caused by any errors or omissions in these data, nor as a result of the failure of these data to function
on a particular system.
ASCII
Each comma-delimited record contains information on the UTC date and time, horizontal
position of the sled, and heading of the ship over the period of time that the camera sled is in the water.
List of navigation files:
2005HI1370930.raw
2005HI1371042.raw
2005HI1371127.raw
2005HI1371249.raw
2005HI 1371413.raw
2005HI 1390700.raw
2005HI 1390809.raw
2005HI 1390907.raw
2005HI 1391009.raw
2005HI 1560523.raw
2005HI 1560615.raw
CD-ROM
ISO 9660
mini digital video
List of Video tapes:
FFS05000-001, Mini DV, Master and Backup
FFS05002, Mini DV, Master and Backup
FFS05003, Mini DV, Master and Backup
FFS05004, Mini DV, Master and Backup
FFS05005, Mini DV, Master and Backup
FFS05006, Mini DV, Master and Backup
FFS05007, Mini DV, Master and Backup
FFS05008, Mini DV, Master and Backup
FFS05009-010,Mini DV, Master and Backup
Video casette tape
Mini DV
None
20121217
Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center (PIBHMC), Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
CRED Data Management Team
mailing and physical address
1125B Ala Moana Blvd.
Honolulu
HI
96814
(808) 983-3776
(808) 983-2902
pibhmc@soest.hawaii.edu
e-mail preferred
FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata
FGDC-STD-001-1998
20080502065557
None
20050629
20050629
http://www.coris.noaa.gov/metadata/records/html/cred_toad_french_frigate_shoals_hi0503_2005.html
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