Abstract:

Six autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) missions collecting multibeam data, subbottom profiles, and photo surveys in northern Gulf of Mexico lease blocks MC118 and OC26. Data were collected using AUVs Mola Mola and Eagle Ray as part of R/V Pelican cruise PE-13-12 during the September 28 to December 8 2012 Cruise.

Suggested Citation:

Arne Diercks. 2016. R/V Pelican: PE13-12 - Raw AUV: Multibeam, Sub Bottom Profiler, Images - Gulf of Mexico, September 28 - October 8, 2012. Distributed by: Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC), Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/N7ZC80X1

Publications:

Conti, A., D’Emidio, M., Macelloni, L., Lutken, C., Asper, V., Woolsey, M., … Highsmith, R. C. (2015). Morpho-acoustic characterization of natural seepage features near the Macondo Wellhead (ECOGIG site OC26, Gulf of Mexico). Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography. doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2015.11.011

Purpose:

Major objectives for this cruise were to acquire Multibeam Echo Sounder mapping and Sub Bottom Profiler data with the Eagle Ray AUV, and digital photo mosaics of bottom conditions at 2 of the main ECOGIG sites, MC118 and OC26 with the Mola Mola AUV.

Data Parameters and Units:

Multibeam echosounder (MBES): XYZ data of latitude (decimal degrees) longitude (decimal degrees) and depth (m) Date (MM/DD/YYYY), Time (UTC), area (km^2), distances (m), alt (m), hdg

Methods:

Multibeam echosounder (MBES): in *.all format; CHIRP subbottom profiler: vertical profiles of sub bottom strata in GeoAcoustics *.gcf format and Seg-Y *.sgy format; Seafloor profiling camera: Raw files *.pgm format with RGGB bayer pattern. and Color corrected *.jpg files. Sub Bottom Profiler data in binary GeoAcoustics GCF condensed format (.gcf) can be read and converted to open standard SEG-Y (.sgy) format by commercial software packages including SonarWiz. As some information in the GCF format is lost in the conversion to SEG-Y, raw data is provided in GCF format. Raw multibeam (MBES) data in Kongsberg ALL format (raw.all) can be read by the commercial software packages CARIS, Fledermaus, and the open source MB System. The earlier photos in the dataset were taken automatically by the AUV before it started the survey. Accordingly, these don't have any associated navigation information. Metadata files for specific AUV missions included.

Instruments:

Kongsberg EM2000; GeoAcoustics polarity preserving chirp sub-bottom profiler; Allied Vision Technologies Prosilica GC1380C, with 9mm lens

Individual Files: