Water Depth and acoustic backscatter data collected from NOAA Ship Nancy Foster in the US Caribbean/ Puerto Rico and St. Thomas from 2016-04-07 to 2016-04-26 (NCEI Accession 0157612)

NOAA's NOS/NCCOS/CCMA Biogeography Team, in collaboration with NOAA Ship Nancy Foster, federal, academic, and private sector partners conducted the 2016 Seafloor Mapping of the US Caribbean project. Several areas of interest were explored and surveyd during the field mission in the eastern Puerto Rico region. H12935 was conducted on along the southeastern Puerto Rican shelf edge using a deep water Em 710 multibeam echo sounder (mbes) at 100khz. H12936 was conducted north of the Isla de Culebra over the broad moderately shallow insular shelf using a 400 khz Reson 7125 mbes. A third opportunistic survey was conducted along the edge of the USVI insular shelf south of St. Thomas to conjoin previous NOAA Ship Nancy Foster mission surveys. During the field mission, a Remotely Operated Vehicle owned by the University of North Carolina collected HD photo and video ground validation video. Data was processed by a NOAA contractor using CARIS HIPS software. Data has all correctors applied (attitude, sound velocity) and has been reduced to mean lower low water (MLLW) using final approved tides from NOAA COOPS. Data is spatially referenced in UTM Zone 20 North, Datum WGS84. The project was conducted to meet IHO order 1 and 2 accuracy standards, dependent on the project area and depth. All users should individually evaluate the suitability of this data according to their own needs and standards.美国国家海洋和大气管理局（NOAA）下属NOS/NCCOS/CCMA生物地理学团队，联合NOAA“南希·福斯特”号科考船、联邦机构、学术机构及私营部门合作伙伴，实施了2016年美国加勒比海海底测绘项目。本次野外科考任务在波多黎各东部区域勘探并勘测了多处感兴趣的海域。航次H12935沿波多黎各东南部陆架边缘开展，使用100kHz深水Em 710型多波束测深仪（multibeam echo sounder，MBES）完成数据采集。航次H12936则在库莱布拉岛北侧的宽阔中等深度岛架区域实施，采用400kHz Reson 7125型多波束测深仪进行数据采集。第三次临时补充测绘沿美属维尔京群岛圣托马斯南侧的岛架边缘开展，以衔接此前NOAA“南希·福斯特”号的测绘任务。本次野外科考任务期间，北卡罗来纳大学所属的遥控水下机器人（Remotely Operated Vehicle）采集了高清照片与实地验证视频数据。数据由NOAA签约服务商使用CARIS HIPS软件完成处理，已完成全部校正工作（包括姿态校正、声速校正），并结合NOAA COOPS发布的最终核准潮汐数据，将数据归算至平均最低低潮面（MLLW）。本数据集采用UTM北20区坐标系、WGS84椭球面进行空间配准。根据作业区域与水深的不同，本项目成果满足国际海道测量组织（IHO）的1级与2级精度标准。所有使用者应根据自身应用需求与评估标准，自行判断本数据集的适用性。