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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

    Metadata Updated: October 9, 2025

    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.

    Access & Use Information

    License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Date September 30, 2025
    Metadata Created Date October 9, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date October 9, 2025
    Reference Date(s) 2023-10 (creation), August 27, 2024 (revision), (publication)
    Frequency Of Update

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NOS NCCOS

    Other Data Resources

    Graphic Preview

    RESTORE Science Program Logo

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Date September 30, 2025
    Metadata Created Date October 9, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date October 9, 2025
    Reference Date(s) 2023-10 (creation), August 27, 2024 (revision), (publication)
    Responsible Party (Point of Contact, Custodian)
    Contact Email
    Guid gov.noaa.nmfs.inport:73334
    Access Constraints Cite As: National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, [Date of Access]: 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 [Data Date Range], https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/73334., Access Constraints: None, Use Constraints: None
    Bbox East Long -94.493379
    Bbox North Lat 29.581263
    Bbox South Lat 28.881278
    Bbox West Long -95.328672
    Coupled Resource
    Frequency Of Update
    Graphic Preview Description RESTORE Science Program Logo
    Graphic Preview File https://cdn.coastalscience.noaa.gov/restore/restore_tagbottom.png
    Harvest Object Id 92bce273-de46-45d3-a013-4483299df9a9
    Harvest Source Id 9594655d-43d5-48eb-bc7d-86f579a54e78
    Harvest Source Title NOS NCCOS
    Licence NOAA provides no warranty, nor accepts any liability occurring from any incomplete, incorrect, or misleading data, or from any incorrect, incomplete, or misleading use of the data. It is the responsibility of the user to determine whether or not the data is suitable for the intended purpose.
    Lineage Data were collected by following RESTORE Science Project: Protecting Texas coastlines from potential oil spills in Galveston Bay using drone surveys and maps of a new response effectiveness index. Scott A. Socolofsky, Texas A&M University (ssocolofsky@civil.tamu.edu) Datasets are archived as individual accessions at the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and grouped together as a NCEI Collection of Accessions. Please see individual archived accessions Lineage Statements for details.
    Metadata Language eng
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-95.328672, 28.881278], [-94.493379, 28.881278], [-94.493379, 29.581263], [-95.328672, 29.581263], [-95.328672, 28.881278]]]}
    Progress underDevelopment
    Spatial Data Service Type
    Spatial Reference System
    Spatial Harvester True
    Temporal Extent Begin 2023-10-01
    Temporal Extent End 2028-09-01

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