Triton Elics Supports CCMA Research Mission

Sea Technology, Mar 2004

Triton Elics International (TEI), of Watsonville, California, is supporting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA) on its scientific research mission in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

This mission will explore and characterize the near-shore and deepwater habitats of the Buck Island Reef and the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monuments using multibeam sonar and underwater video cameras.

TEI hydrographers will be onboard providing operational assistance as well as hands-on training for TEFs hydrographie suite of software that is being used on the mission. TEFs Isis sonar is handling the acquisition of multibeam data, as well as backscatter side scan imagery from the Reson 8101. To insure complete coverage and maximum data quality, real-time digital terrain maps are being created with TEFs BathyRT and DelphMap modules. One requirement of this mission is to have geo-corrected side scan mosaics and digital terrain maps of the multibeam coverage area available as visual guides for a second pass over the area with the video imaging sensors. The window between the passes is less than two hours, so the processing must be simple and accurate.

Data from the mission will be used to produce maps of the seafloor topography, identification and mapping of the seafloor habitats, and spatially-explicit models of how fish species utilize habitats. The mission will also help NOAA meet its commitment to the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force to map coral reef ecosystems, and to provide new information to update nautical charts covering the Virgin Islands.