NOAA's NGDC built 10-meter resolution, digital elevation models (DEMs) for New Orleans, LA; Biloxi, MS; Mobile, AL; Panama City, FL; and for the northern Gulf of Mexico. The DEMs were delivered to the NOAA Response and Recovery team, the Naval Oceanographic Office - Mississippi Tactical Division, and others for inclusion in the Crisis Response website supporting the response and restoration following the oil spill. These integrated ocean bathymetry and land topography DEMs can be used for modeling of coastal processes, including contaminant dispersal, habitat management and research, coastal and marine spatial planning, and community hazard mitigation and preparedness. Various media and outreach efforts also utilized the DEMs, including National Geographic and Google.
Also in response to DWH spill, NGDC initiated a new data archive to steward multi-beam echosounders measuring complex "layers" in the water column. This is in addition to the established geophysical data archive. Mid-water sonars are a relatively new technology for which there was no established archive, processing, or web delivery capability. These data, collected with the same type of technology used to map the ocean floor, are focused on mapping changes in the ocean between the ship bottom and the seabed, including changes in the water column due to oil or gas plumes. The NOAA ship Thomas Jefferson delivered the first submission of water column multi-beam sonar data collected in the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the challenges involved in the stewardship of these data include very large file sizes, expertise in processing the data, and expertise in developing and supporting derived science products. NGDC plans to partner with the NOAA Joint Center for Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire and NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service to address some of these challenges.
NGDC has also been working with NODC, NCDDC, and NOAA's Chief Information Office to develop a sustainable data management plan for the data collected as part of the response and restoration efforts.
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