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 Kure Atoll, 2002, to Support Benthic Habitat Mapping
Video and photo 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 the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands,
Kure Atoll 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 Kure Atoll. Refer to supplemental information for description of instrument
and survey.
Kure Atoll, lying at the northwestern end of the Hawaiian Archipelago at 28.5N, 178W, is the
northernmost atoll in the world. This classically shape atoll encloses 0.86 sq. km of land including Green Island
which has was home to a long range navigation (LORAN) station for decades. The coral reef environment includes 167
sq. km of banks with depths less than 100 m in depth.
Optical validation data were collected using the Tethered Optical Assessment Device (TOAD), a sled equipped with
underwater video camera, still camera, and lights. These data are used to provide ground-truth validation that for
benthic habitat maps based on multibeam echosounder surveys. Camera sled deployments were conducted at night,
usually between 1800 and midnight. The TOAD was deployed from a pot hauler mounted on the starboard side of the
fantail on NOAA Ship Townsend Cromwell. It was lowered slowly to the bottom by the deck crew with the use of a capstan.
The TOAD 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 TOAD was a MiniBat 8820 unit
manufactured by Guideline, and was towed by the ship at 1-2 knots while remotely guided from the ship using adjustable
wing controls to keep the unit close to the underwater substrate. The TOAD was damaged during the cruise on 02/20/02,
and subsequent tows were conducted as drift deployments. 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 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 is a camera sled based on the Guildline MiniBat model 8820 tow body. The frame was
configured with a single Sony DCR-PC110 Digital Video Camera in a modified Gates underwater housing, a Canon Power
Shot G1 Still Camera (modified by CRED engineers) in an Ikelite housing rated to 60 m slaved to an Ikelite DS-50
strobe, and two 500 W DeepSea Power & Light model 710-0400601 underwater lights. The Canon camera had a custom-built
timer that enabled the user to select a constant time interval (ranging from approximately 5 seconds to 2 minutes)
between photographs. An interval of 30 seconds was typically selected, which, assuming a mean velocity for the camera
sled of 1.5 knots, resulted in one photograph approximately every 20 m. Photograph resolution is 2048 x 1536 pixels
and file names are assigned sequentially and automatically by the camera, starting at 100-0000 after the camera's
memory is cleared. The MiniBat pressure sensor and wing controller were also mounted on the frame but the pressure
sensor was not operational. After damage to the TOAD on 02/20/02and the sled's wings were not installed thereafter.
The cable between the sled and the surface was an underwater load-bearing electrical cable. The TOAD computers were
located in the Electronics Lab of the Townsend Cromwell. The electronics box containing the power switches was
secured to the ship's fantail, and all other TOAD surface components were secured in the ship's wet lab.
Name & address of person collecting data:
Joyce Miller & Ronald Hoeke
NOAA IRC
NMFS/PIFSC/CRED
1845 WASP Blvd., Building 176
Honolulu, HI 96818
Data Files: Video data were recorded on two video tape recorders. Still photos were recorded on digital camera and
downloaded to the TOAD computer after the tow. The position of the camera sled was recorded using Guildline MiniBat
In-Tow data acquisition software.
File naming convention: Each tow is given a name consisting of a 3-letter designator for the island area, "KUR" in
this case followed by a five-digit tow number. The first two digits indicate the last two digits of the calendar
year, i.e., "02" is used for this cruise, which took place in 2002. The last three numbers indicate the consecutive
number of the tow for that island and year, and start on the next hundred for subsequent cruises in that year to the
same island. During TC0207 the consecutive numbers started at 001. Video tape labels, the navigation files (*.glo)
and paper log forms are all annotated with the tow name. Metadata were extracted from the navigation data and recorded
to a file with the same name as the navigation file except that a file type of ".met" was appended; for example,
"KUR02001.glo.met."
Time Correlation: All times are based on UTC. Two clocks were set manually synchronized prior to starting data
collection; the clock in the video character generator that was used to annotate the video tape and the TOAD data
acquisition computer clock was used to annotate the navigation (*.glo) files. These clocks were set to UTC at the
beginning of each evening's operations and then compared to one another prior to (and during) each tow. There were
problems maintaining synchronization of the TOAD computer clock during this cruise. See the problems section for a
description.
Resource Description: Digital video images geo-referenced to navigation files.
20020924
20020926
ground condition
As needed
-178.39132
-178.36918
28.44950
28.40928
NCEI Geoportal FilterCoRIS_MetadataCRCP ProjectBenthic Habitat Mapping and Characterization - Northwestern and Main Hawaiian Islands1217
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
TC0207
CoRIS Discovery Thesaurus
Visual Images > Habitats
ISO 19115 Topic Category
environment
007
biota
002
CoRIS Place Thesaurus
OCEAN BASIN > Pacific Ocean > Central Pacific Ocean > Northwestern Hawaiian Islands > Kure Atoll (28N178W0001)
COUNTRY/TERRITORY > United States of America > Hawaii > Honolulu > Kure Atoll (28N178W0001)
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)
mailing and physical address
NOAA IRC
NMFS/PIFSC/CRED
1845 WASP Blvd., Building 176
Honolulu
HI
96818
808 725-5360
808 725-5429
nmfs.pic.credinfo@noaa.gov
e-mail preferred
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 100 meters.
There are three 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 used; no attempt is made to translocate this position to that of the tow block from which the camera is
deployed. The difference between the tow block and the antenna is about 14 meters. The camera sled position is
based a layback calculation that use ship's course, the amount of cable out and the camera sled depth to develop
an estimate of the camera sled position.The amount of cable deployed is manually entered by the operator during a
given camera tow.
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. Navigation data were copied from the acquisition computer to the
data archive. A metadata extractor (gloFilter.py, version 3/06) was run to summarize the navigation data and test
for errors. If errors were detected they were corrected or flagged as appropriate and a new data file was made.
This file's header was updated to document what type of processing occurred. A metadata file was recorded in the
data archive in the same location as the navigation data. Processed navigation data were then read into ArcView 3.2
shapefiles using an ArcView Avenue script named "TOAD.Import.Playback", version 9/25/01, written by Ronald Hoeke.
20041015
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)
mailing and physical address
NOAA IRC
NMFS/PIFSC/CRED
1845 WASP Blvd., Building 176
Honolulu
HI
96818
808 725-5360
808 725-5429
nmfs.pic.credinfo@noaa.gov
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 year, day of year, time, latitude, longitude,
velocity north and east, water column depth, vehicle depth, layback, and wing angle. For this data set the
fields for vehicle depth and wing angle do not contain useful data.
List of navigation files:
KUR02001a.glo
KUR02006.glo
KUR02012.glo
CD-ROM
ISO 9660
mini digital video and VHS
List of Video tapes:
KUR02001, VHS, Master
KUR02012, VHS, Master
KUR02001, Mini DV, Master
KUR02012a, Mini DV, Master
KUR02012b, Mini DV, Master
KUR02001, Mini DV, Backup
KUR02012a, Mini DV, Backup
KUR02012b, Mini DV, Backup
Video cassette tape
Mini DV
JPG digital still photo
387 still images available; poor photos were enhanced or deleted
List of photo folders:
KUR02001: KUR_092302_0552 (72 photos)
KUR02006: KUR_092402_0558 (74 photos)
KUR02012: KUR_092502_0521 (241 photos)
CD-ROM
JPEG
None
20200329
20110323
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)
mailing and physical address
NOAA IRC
NMFS/PIFSC/CRED
1845 WASP Blvd., Building 176
Honolulu
HI
96818
808 725-5360
808 725-5429
nmfs.pic.credinfo@noaa.gov
e-mail preferred
FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata
FGDC-STD-001-1998
20080502025649
None
20020924
20020926
https://www.coris.noaa.gov/metadata/records/html/cred_toad_kure_tc0207_2002.html
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