Orthorectified Coral Reef Mosaic Images from Florida Keys 2019

Six orthorectified landscape mosaic images document coral reef communities across six 10m x 10m transect plots at Cheeca Rocks reef in the Florida Keys. The dataset was produced by the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program's National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) from imagery collected on September 18, 2019. Each mosaic is a composite of 1500-3000 individual underwater photographs stitched together using Agisoft Photoscan software.

Use Cases

• Analyze coral reef community structure and benthic cover using the high-resolution landscape mosaic images.
• Monitor changes in reef health over time by comparing these 2019 orthorectified mosaics with imagery from other years.
• Train computer vision models for automated coral species identification or substrate classification on the stitched underwater imagery.
• Assess the spatial distribution of coral colonies and other reef organisms within each 100 m2 transect plot.

Strengths

• Six distinct high-resolution image files, each covering a 100 m2 reef transect.
• Images are orthorectified, providing geometric accuracy for spatial analysis.
• Each mosaic is created from 1500-3000 source images, offering detailed visual data.

Limitations

• Limited temporal coverage to a single collection date in 2019.
• Spatial coverage is restricted to six specific plots at one reef site (Cheeca Rocks).
• Sample size is small, consisting of only six image files.

Provenance

Source

NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program's National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP), accessed via NASA Earthdata (NCEI Accession 0223308).

Collection Method

Underwater images captured by scuba divers using a dual-camera mosaic rig in a lawnmower pattern, processed into orthorectified mosaics with Agisoft Photoscan software.

Time Range

2019-09-18

Freshness

Data was collected and last updated on 2019-09-18.

Geography

Cheeca Rocks reef, Florida Keys, USA.