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    • Seafloor substrate (hard and soft bottom) maps derived from satellite imagery for the islands and atolls of the Pacific Remote Island Areas

    Metadata Updated: November 22, 2025

    Seafloor substrate (i.e., hard vs. soft bottom) from 0 to up to 30 m depths around islands/atolls in Pacific Remote Island Areas produced by the NOAA Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD). The islands/atolls include Howland, Baker, Jarvis, Kingman Reef, Palmyra Atoll, Johnston Atoll, Wake Atoll. This is a preliminary product derived from an unsupervised classification of depth-invariant indices prepared from high resolution satellite images. Unsupervised classification segmented the indices into multiple classes, and the binary substrate map was produced by mapping interpreter's informed judgments in attributing the predicted classes. Where required, area-specific class attribution and minor manual editing were undertaken to remove inaccurate predictions.

    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 November 12, 2025
    Metadata Created Date October 19, 2024
    Metadata Updated Date November 22, 2025
    Reference Date(s) 2018 (creation), 2018 (publication)
    Frequency Of Update notPlanned

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NMFS PIFSC

    Other Data Resources

    Graphic Preview

    An example hard- and soft-bottom substrate map of Tutuila (prepared using a different methodology compared with the substrate maps prepared for the project described here).

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Date November 12, 2025
    Metadata Created Date October 19, 2024
    Metadata Updated Date November 22, 2025
    Reference Date(s) 2018 (creation), 2018 (publication)
    Responsible Party (Point of Contact, Custodian)
    Contact Email
    Guid gov.noaa.nmfs.inport:54217
    Access Constraints Cite As: Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, [Date of Access]: Seafloor substrate (hard and soft bottom) maps derived from satellite imagery for the islands and atolls of the Pacific Remote Island Areas [Data Date Range], https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/54217., Access Constraints: None, Use Constraints: These data are not to be used for navigation purposes. Please cite NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD) when using the data. Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Ecosystem Sciences Division (2018). Seafloor substrate (hard and soft bottom) maps at select islands/atolls in American Samoa, Mariana Archipelago, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/34310., Distribution Liability: While every effort has been made to ensure that these data are accurate and reliable within the limits of the current state of the art, NOAA cannot assume liability for any damages caused by errors or omissions in the data, nor as a result of the failure of the data to function on a particular system. NOAA makes no warranty, expressed or implied, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty.
    Bbox East Long -159.8
    Bbox North Lat 16.75
    Bbox South Lat -0.7
    Bbox West Long -176.7
    Coupled Resource
    Frequency Of Update notPlanned
    Graphic Preview Description An example hard- and soft-bottom substrate map of Tutuila (prepared using a different methodology compared with the substrate maps prepared for the project described here).
    Graphic Preview File https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pibhmc/amsamoa_images/TUT_unspv_hardvsoft_5m_445.jpg
    Graphic Preview Type JPG
    Harvest Object Id bf35c611-347c-4bc7-827e-cc01e7e81b52
    Harvest Source Id c0beac72-5f43-4455-8c33-1b345fbc2dfe
    Harvest Source Title NMFS PIFSC
    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 Satellite images were processed for the Pacific Remote Island Areas using the method described in Mumby and Edwards (2000) and then, unsupervised classification was applied to derive Hard and Soft substrates. ENVI 5.3 (Harris Geospatial Solutions, Inc.) and ArcGIS 10.5.1 (Esri, Inc.) The lineage describes the general processing steps. The detailed steps and coefficients for each place are described in the readme file in the zip file.
    Metadata Language eng
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-176.7, -0.7], [-159.8, -0.7], [-159.8, 16.75], [-176.7, 16.75], [-176.7, -0.7]]]}
    Progress completed
    Spatial Data Service Type
    Spatial Reference System
    Spatial Harvester True
    Temporal Extent Begin 2011
    Temporal Extent End 2017

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