sbnmsallsta.shp: Sample and video stations located in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary region.

Metadata also available as

Frequently-anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
sbnmsallsta.shp: Sample and video stations located in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary region.
Abstract:
This data set contains point locations for data stations in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Region off Boston, Massachusetts, an area of approximately 1100 nautical square miles. The Stellwagen Bank NMS Mapping Project is designed to provide detailed maps of the Stellwagen Bank region's environments and habitats and the first complete multibeam topographic and sea floor characterization maps of a significant region of the shallow EEZ. Stations represent the location of a sediment sample and/or the end of a video transect. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) was recorded for each station location; latitude and longitude were later extracted from a GPS navigational log file using this time.
  1. How should this data set be cited?

    Valentine, Page C. , Scully, Lian A. , and Fuller, Sarah J. , 2005, sbnmsallsta.shp: Sample and video stations located in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary region.: Scientific Investigations Map 2840, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Science Center, Woods Hole, MA.

    Online Links:

    This is part of the following larger work.

    Page C. Valentine, editor, 2005, Sea floor image maps showing topography, sun-illuminated topography, backscatter intensity, ruggedness, slope, and the distribution of boulder ridges and bedrock outcrops in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary region off Boston, Massachusetts: Scientific Investigations Map 2840, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Science Center, Woods Hole, MA.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details: 1 DVD-ROM

  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?

    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -70.611920
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -70.024330
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 42.798900
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 42.084650

  3. What does it look like?

  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?

    Beginning_Date: 1993
    Ending_Date: 2004
    Currentness_Reference: ground condition

  5. What is the general form of this data set?

    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: vector digital data

  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?

    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?

      This is a Vector data set. It contains the following vector data types (SDTS terminology):

      • Entity point (3392)

    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?

      Horizontal positions are specified in geographic coordinates, that is, latitude and longitude. Latitudes are given to the nearest 0.000000. Longitudes are given to the nearest 0.000000. Latitude and longitude values are specified in Decimal degrees.

      The horizontal datum used is North American Datum of 1983.
      The ellipsoid used is Geodetic Reference System 80.
      The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378137.000000.
      The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/298.257222.

  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?

    sbnmsallsta
    Shapefile Attribute Table (Source: ESRI)

    TAPE_COU_1
    Time in hours, minutes and seconds for the end of the video transect for that station, to be used to find the correct drift using the counter on a video viewer. Time starts at 0 seconds and counts up; format is hmmss. (Source: USGS)

    Range of values
    Minimum:0
    Maximum:20318
    Units:integer count
    Resolution:1

    FID
    Internal feature number. (Source: ESRI)

    Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.

    Shape
    Feature geometry. (Source: ESRI)

    Coordinates defining the features.

    LONGITUDE
    Longitude in decimal degrees (west longitudes are recorded as negative values) (Source: USGS)

    Range of values
    Minimum:-70.61192
    Maximum:-70.02433
    Units:signed decimal degrees
    Resolution:.00001

    LATITUDE
    Latitude in decimal degrees (Source: USGS)

    Range of values
    Minimum:42.080465
    Maximum:42.7989
    Units:signed decimal degrees
    Resolution:.00001

    STATION
    Unique value identifying the station (Source: USGS)

    Range of values
    Minimum:1.0
    Maximum:4207.0
    Units:integer count
    Resolution:1.0

    SAMPLE_TAK
    Value indicating whether or not a sediment sample was taken at this location (Source: USGS)

    ValueDefinition
    TRUESample was acquired at location.
    FALSESample was NOT acquired at this location.

    CRUISE
    Name of cruise on which seabed observation station data and/or sample was collected (Source: USGS)

    Character string containing ship abbreviation, year and leg of cruise

    QUADRANGLE
    Quadrangle within which the station is located. Quadrangles are not United States Geological Survey quads, but rather a custom set of quads created for the Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary. (Source: USGS)

    Range of values
    Minimum:1
    Maximum:18
    Units:integer count
    Resolution:1

    NAVIGATION
    Navigation file number containing edited GPS location data and time; station locations are extracted from this file. (Source: USGS)

    Range of values
    Minimum:0
    Maximum:18
    Units:integer count
    Resolution:1

    UTC
    Time when station location was taken in Coordinated Universal Time; first set of numbers represent the Julian Day, second set the hours (on a 24-hr clock), third set the minutes, and fourth set the seconds. (Source: USGS)

    Character string containing date and time of observation in UTC as JDAY:HH:MM:SS

    YEAR
    Year of cruise/data collection (Source: USGS)

    Range of values
    Minimum:1993
    Maximum:2004
    Units:integer count
    Resolution:1

    PHOTOGRAPH
    Value indicating whether or not pictures were taken of the sea floor for this station and/or associated video transect. (Source: USGS)

    ValueDefinition
    TRUEPhotograph exists at this location
    FALSEPhotograph does NOT exist at this location

    VIDEO_TAKE
    Value indicating whether or not a video transect was taken of the seafloor for this location. All video was recorded on 8mm videotape. (Source: USGS)

    ValueDefinition
    TRUEVideo exists at this location.
    FALSEVideo does NOT exist at this location.

    VIDEOTAPE_
    Video tape number (Source: USGS)

    ValueDefinition
    NoneVideo is NOT available at this location.

    TAPE_COUNT
    Time in hours, minutes and seconds for the beginning of the video transect for that station, to be used to find the correct drift using the counter on a video viewer. Time starts at 0 seconds and counts up; format is hmmss. (Source: USGS)

    Range of values
    Minimum:0
    Maximum:20003
    Units:integer count
    Resolution:1

    DEPTH_METE
    Depth of water in meters at beginning of video drift transect or at seabed observation station if video does not exist. (Source: USGS)

    Range of values
    Minimum:0
    Maximum:199
    Units:meters
    Resolution:1

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)

  2. Who also contributed to the data set?

  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?

    Page C. Valentine
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Research Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Rd.
    Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598
    USA

    (508) 548-8700 x2239 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    pvalentine@usgs.gov

Why was the data set created?

Development of interpretive seabed maps, sea floor imagery, and a GIS database that are accessible to scientists, policymakers, managers, and the general public.

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?

  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?

    (process 1 of 2)
    Station location point data were created using latitude and longitude from a GPS navigational log collected during research cruises from 1993 through 2004.

    Data sources produced in this process:

    • sbnmsallsta.shp
    • sbnmsallsta.dbf
    • sbnmsallsta.shx

    (process 2 of 2)
    Dataset copied.

    Data sources used in this process:

    • f:\new_vineyard\stellwagen\stations\sbnmsallsta

  3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?

How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?

  1. How well have the observations been checked?

  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?

  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?

  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?

  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?

    No additional checks for topological consistency were performed on the data.

How can someone get a copy of the data set?

Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?

Access_Constraints: None
Use_Constraints:
Public domain data from the U.S. Government are freely redistributable with proper metadata and source attribution. Please recognize the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) as the source of this information.

  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)

    Page C. Valentine
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Research Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Rd.
    Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598
    USA

    (508) 548-8700 x2239 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    pvalentine@usgs.gov

  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set?

    Downloadable Data

  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?

    Although these data have been used by the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of the Interior, no warranty expressed or implied is made by the U.S. Geological Survey as to the accuracy of the data. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

  4. How can I download or order the data?

  5. What hardware or software do I need in order to use the data set?

    These data are available in Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) shapefile format. The user must have ArcGIS® or ArcView® 3.0 or greater software to read and process the data file. In lieu of ArcView or ArcGIS, the user may utilize another GIS application package capable of the importing data. A free data viewer, arcexplorer, capable of displaying the data is available from ESRI at www.esri.com.

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 27-Oct-2005
Metadata author:
U.S. Geological Survey
c/o Page C. Valentine
Research Geologist
384 Woods Hole Rd.
Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598
USA

(508) 548-8700 x2239 (voice)
(508) 457-2310 (FAX)
pvalentine@usgs.gov

Metadata standard:
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)
Metadata extensions used:

Generated by mp version 2.8.6 on Thu Oct 27 16:29:03 2005