These data were prepared by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, make any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in this report, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference therein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. Any views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. Although all data have been used by NOAA, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by NOAA as to the accuracy of the data and/or related materials. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by NOAA in the use of these data or related materials.
NOAA - NMAO personnel and R/V Ron Brown
"...rugosity derivation relies, in part, on a neighborhood analysis using a 3 grid cell by 3 grid cell neighborhood. An algorithm is passed through the Raster Map Algebra Operation object within Spatial Analyst that calculates the planar distance between the center point of the center cell and of each of the eight surrounding cells in the neighborhood. Next, using the Pythagorean Theorem, the surface distance is calculated for each planar distance using the difference in elevation between the cells. The result of this function is sixteen separate grid data sets with each cell value equal to this surface distance. The next step in the process is to calculate the area formed by three adjacent sides. The result is eight triangular surface area grids. These grid datasets are combined to obtain a surface area data set for the input bathymetric data set. The final step in the process is to create a data set that represents the ratio of surface area to planar area. This final data set represents rugosity for the study area."
More information on the specific algorithms used, and contact points for questions, can be found in the BTM's documentation.
Rugosity values near 1 represent flat smooth terrain, while higher values reflect increasing rugosity or terrain roughness. For rugosity grid interpretation, is recommended that the grid be reclassified according to standard deviation divisions.