Supporting Marine Geoscience Research with ongoing Growth of the Global Multi-Resolution Topography Synthesis and Maintenance of GeoMapApp

了解海底的深度和形态对海洋科学的许多领域都是必不可少的。海底的形态记录了影响海底环境的各种地质过程，包括火山喷发、断裂、海底滑坡和大陆边缘的沉积物运输。详细的海底测深对海洋科学研究的其他领域也很重要，包括评价生物生境、海洋环流研究和海啸淹没的预测，以及包括渔业和沿海资源管理在内的应用研究。深度和形态的测量现在通常是通过使用现代条多波束回声测深仪（MBESs）来实现的。然而，全球海洋是巨大的，只有一小部分（15%）的海底被直接测量绘制了地图，在一次典型的探险中可以绘制的总面积是非常有限的。这使得保存和方便获取对科学界具有高价值的海底测绘数据成为可能。由美国国家科学基金会资助的研究考察期间收集的MBES数据现在定期存档，并可通过NOAA国家环境信息中心提供的公共数据库访问。然而，将原始探险数据转换为各种科学和资源管理应用程序有用的格式需要专门的处理。为了帮助满足这一需求，研究小组开发了全球多分辨率地形（GMRT）合成，该合成是空间稀疏、质量控制的网格化MBES数据与低分辨率全球尺度海洋数据、高分辨率陆地高程数据以及分辨率为米至数百米的网格化测深数据集的统一汇编。GMRT是唯一这样的全球综合，由一套多分辨率网格和图像组成，在最高分辨率下保留了底层数据的全分辨率，以及对源数据的归属和访问。GMRT可以通过各种工具访问，包括GeoMapApp (GMA)，这是一个基于地图的可视化应用程序，使用户能够轻松地可视化海底形态并制作自定义地图，以及可视化和分析许多其他海洋数据类型，而无需专业知识。该项目的资金支持GMRT综合的持续发展和增长，以及GMA数据可视化和分析工具的维护。该项目的总体目标是：(1)继续构建GMRT全球综合，处理和集成来自美国学术船队考察的新的质量控制的MBES覆盖；(2)开发工具和工作流程，以实现GMRT数据处理的分布式模式，并有效地将科学界其他制图专家生成的处理后的MBES数据集成到综合中。(3)为GMA提供支持，确保该工具可用于GMRT等数据可视化。该项目的更广泛影响包括：专家和非专业人士更容易获取海洋地球科学数据；提高了研究生产力，避免了为获得科学调查所需的可用产品而进行耗时的数据处理任务；促进海洋地球科学数据的广泛再利用，从而提高纳税人在海洋科学方面的投资回报。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Knowledge of the depths and morphology of the seafloor is essential for many areas of marine science. The morphology of the seabed provides a record of the diverse geologic processes that affect the submarine environment including volcanic eruptions, faulting, submarine landslides and sediment transport from the continental margins. Detailed seabed bathymetry is also important for other areas of marine science research including evaluation of biological habitats, ocean circulation studies, and prediction of tsunami inundation, as well as for applied studies including fisheries and coastal resource management. Measurements of depth and morphology are now typically achieved through the use of modern swath multibeam echosounders (MBESs). However, the global ocean is vast, and only a small fraction (15%) of the seafloor has been mapped with direct measurement, and the total area that can be mapped during a typical expedition is very limited. This makes preservation of and easy access to seabed mapping data of high value to the science community. MBES data collected during research expeditions funded by the NSF are now routinely archived and accessible through public databases provided by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. However, specialist processing is needed to translate the raw expedition data into formats useful for diverse scientific and resource management applications. To help meet this need, the research team has developed the Global Multi-Resolution Topography (GMRT) synthesis which is a unified compilation of spatially sparse, quality controlled gridded MBES data merged with lower resolution global-scale ocean data, high-resolution terrestrial elevation data, and a collection of gridded bathymetry datasets at resolutions of meters to hundreds of meters. GMRT is the only such global synthesis, composed of a suite of multi-resolution grids and images, which at highest resolution preserve the full resolution of the underlying data, as well as attribution and access to source data. GMRT can be accessed through a variety of tools including GeoMapApp (GMA), which is a map-based visualization application that enables users to easily visualize seafloor morphology and make custom maps, as well as to visualize and analyze many other marine data types without the need for specialist expertise. Funding for this project supports the continued development and growth of the GMRT synthesis and maintenance of the GMA data visualization and analysis tool. The overall goals of this project are to (1) continue to build the GMRT global synthesis with the processing and integration of new quality controlled MBES coverage from expeditions of the U.S. academic fleet, (2) develop the tools and workflows to enable a distributed mode of GMRT data processing, and the efficient integration of processed MBES data generated by other mapping experts within the science community into the synthesis, (3) provide support for GMA to ensure that this tool is available for GMRT and other data visualization. Broader impacts of this project include greater ease-of-access to marine geoscience data for specialists and non-specialists alike; enhanced research productivity, obviating the need for the time-consuming data processing tasks needed to obtain usable products for scientific inquiry; and facilitating broad re-use of marine geoscience data, which enhances the return on tax-payer investments in ocean science.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.