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RESTORE Sponsored Research Project: Protecting Texas coastlines from potential oil spills in Galveston Bay using drone surveys and maps of a new response effectiveness index

Published by National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Catalog Last Checked: August 02, 2026 at 05:14 PM | Dataset Last Updated: August 27, 2024 at 12:00 AM
Galveston Bay and the surrounding Texas coast are vulnerable to marine oil spills, from both the high volume of marine commerce through the Galveston Bay ship channel and from offshore oil exploration. The project team will use drone observations and NOAA forecasts to develop technology that seeks to improve manager response decisions to future oil spills in a RESTORE Science funded project from 2023 to 2028. This dataset includes UAS drone survey video and still imagery data of the ocean surface with corresponding measurements of near-surface ocean currents. Additionally, the following associated data are included: UTM coordinates, Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) measurements of ocean currents within the water column, CTD measurements of temperature and salinity across the water column. The data was collected at Galveston Bay (entrance channel and across the Houston ship channel inside the bay) and Freeport, Texas. This dataset will be collected over 3 initial field-testing periods followed by quarterly surveys and oil spill event-based response surveys. The UAS surveys are stored as .MOV video files and still images (JPG), and the accompanying txt files containing the processed near-surface ocean currents data. Please note that still image files will not be available for every survey. The ADCP measurements are stored as txt files, for each of the east(u), north(v) and vertical(w) components of velocity, along with the magnitude and direction. The temperature and salinity profiles are stored as CSV files. GPS data of the boat location from which some UAS surveys are conducted is stored as csv files. This dataset is a result of research funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's RESTORE Science Program (ROR - https://ror.org/0042xzm63) under award NA23NOS4510309 to Texas A&M University.

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  • https://doi.org/10.25921/vmp4-0149

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  • https://doi.org/10.25921/fwe5-pd98

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  • https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/NCCOS-RESTORE-Surface_Currents_Texas

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  • https://github.com/Vbheeroo/Surface_currents_data_processing

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  • Full Metadata Record

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EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CIRCULATION > OCEAN CURRENTS EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CIRCULATION > OCEAN CURRENTS > SURFACE CURRENTS CONTINENT > NORTH AMERICA > UNITED STATES OF AMERICA > TEXAS OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > GULF OF AMERICA NCCOS Research Data Type > Field Observation NCCOS Sponsored Research > RESTORE Science Program NCCOS Research Location > Region > Gulf of America Freeport, Texas

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describedByType application/octet-steam
description Galveston Bay and the surrounding Texas coast are vulnerable to marine oil spills, from both the high volume of marine commerce through the Galveston Bay ship channel and from offshore oil exploration. The project team will use drone observations and NOAA forecasts to develop technology that seeks to improve manager response decisions to future oil spills in a RESTORE Science funded project from 2023 to 2028. This dataset includes UAS drone survey video and still imagery data of the ocean surface with corresponding measurements of near-surface ocean currents. Additionally, the following associated data are included: UTM coordinates, Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) measurements of ocean currents within the water column, CTD measurements of temperature and salinity across the water column. The data was collected at Galveston Bay (entrance channel and across the Houston ship channel inside the bay) and Freeport, Texas. This dataset will be collected over 3 initial field-testing periods followed by quarterly surveys and oil spill event-based response surveys. The UAS surveys are stored as .MOV video files and still images (JPG), and the accompanying txt files containing the processed near-surface ocean currents data. Please note that still image files will not be available for every survey. The ADCP measurements are stored as txt files, for each of the east(u), north(v) and vertical(w) components of velocity, along with the magnitude and direction. The temperature and salinity profiles are stored as CSV files. GPS data of the boat location from which some UAS surveys are conducted is stored as csv files. This dataset is a result of research funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's RESTORE Science Program (ROR - https://ror.org/0042xzm63) under award NA23NOS4510309 to Texas A&M University.
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Cite as: Bheeroo, Vivek; Lee, Mu-Jung; Chang, Kuang-An; Socolofsky, Scott (2025). NOAA RESTORE Science Program: Protecting Texas Coastlines from Potential Oil Spills in Galveston Bay using unmanned aerial system (UAS) Surveys and Maps of a New Response Effectiveness Index: Field test measurements of near-surface currents in Galveston Bay and Freeport, Texas 2024-02-13 to 2024-02-15 (NCEI Accession 0306218). https://doi.org/10.25921/vmp4-0149. In Bheeroo, Vivek. NOAA RESTORE Science Program: Protecting Texas Coastlines from Potential Oil Spills in Galveston Bay using unmanned aerial system (UAS) Surveys and Maps of a New Response Effectiveness Index: measurements of near-surface currents in Galveston Bay and Freeport, Texas 2023 to 2028. [indicate subset used]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/NCCOS-RESTORE-Surface_Currents_Texas.",
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Cite as: Bheeroo, Vivek; Bae, Soo Bum; Lee, Mu-Jung; Socolofsky, Scott A.; Chang, Kuang-An (2025). NOAA RESTORE Science Program Protecting Texas Coastlines from Potential Oil Spills in Galveston Bay using unmanned aerial system (UAS) Surveys and Maps of a New Response Effectiveness Index: Field test measurements of dominant wave characteristics in Galveston Bay and Brazos River, College Station, 2023-12-09 to 2024-06-02 (NCEI Accession 0303466). https://doi.org/10.25921/fwe5-pd98. In Bheeroo, Vivek. NOAA RESTORE Science Program: Protecting Texas Coastlines from Potential Oil Spills in Galveston Bay using unmanned aerial system (UAS) Surveys and Maps of a New Response Effectiveness Index: measurements of near-surface currents in Galveston Bay and Freeport, Texas 2023 to 2028. [indicate subset used]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/NCCOS-RESTORE-Surface_Currents_Texas. Accessed [date].",
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Cite as: Bheeroo, Vivek (2025). NOAA RESTORE Science Program: Protecting Texas Coastlines from Potential Oil Spills in Galveston Bay using unmanned aerial system (UAS) Surveys and Maps of a New Response Effectiveness Index: measurements of near-surface currents in Galveston Bay and Freeport, Texas 2023 to 2028. [indicate subset used]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/NCCOS-RESTORE-Surface_Currents_Texas. Accessed [date].",
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identifier https://data.noaa.gov/waf/NOAA/nos/nccos/iso/xml/73334.xml
issued 2023-10-01T00:00:00.000+00:00
keyword 
[
  "EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CIRCULATION > OCEAN CURRENTS",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CIRCULATION > OCEAN CURRENTS > SURFACE CURRENTS",
  "CONTINENT > NORTH AMERICA > UNITED STATES OF AMERICA > TEXAS",
  "OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > GULF OF AMERICA",
  "NCCOS Research Data Type > Field Observation",
  "NCCOS Sponsored Research > RESTORE Science Program",
  "NCCOS Research Location > Region > Gulf of America",
  "Freeport, Texas",
  "Galveston Bay entrance channel",
  "Galveston Bay, Texas (Gal_entrance_channel)",
  "Gulf of America",
  "Houston ship channel, Texas (Houston-ship-channel)",
  "ADCP Workhorse sentinel",
  "CTD Hydrolab DS 5",
  "Garmin GPS 19x NMEA 2000",
  "Video Camera",
  "Unmanned aerial system- DJI Mavic 2 Pro",
  "DOC/NOAA/NOS/NCCOS > National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, National Ocean Service, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "FY23"
]
landingPage https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/73334
language 
[]
license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified 2024-08-27T00:00:00.000+00:00
publisher 
{
  "name": "National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
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rights otherRestrictions, unclassified
spatial -94.493379,28.881278,-95.328672,29.581263
temporal 2023-10-01T00:00:00+00:00/2028-09-01T00:00:00+00:00
theme 
[
  "geospatial"
]
title RESTORE Sponsored Research Project: Protecting Texas coastlines from potential oil spills in Galveston Bay using drone surveys and maps of a new response effectiveness index

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