The Integration and Enhancement of Seafloor and Land Topography With Satellite Data

This presentation will illustrate several useful techniques to integrate disparate marine and land data. Six data sets were combined, so that a variety of geophysical information is represented while preserving spatial detail through the entire elevation range. There is significant utility in bringing these data together in a single map/image. The color component of the image depicts bathymetry in the marine setting and vegetation distribution on the land areas. The colors of the marine portion of the image were derived from Smith and Sandwell's bathymetric solution below 72 degrees of latitude and ETOPO5 data above 72 degrees of latitude. The color is scaled to accentuate bathymetric features, such as the continental shelf and mid-ocean ridges. The color component of the land was enhanced from an AVHRR false color infrared dataset that was acquired from WorldSat International. These colors on the marine and land data sets were draped over the textural component of the image. A key objective of this map was to preserve as much of the tectonic detail as possible for the complete bathymetric and topographic range. The marine textural information was derived from Sandwell and Smith's bathymetric and gravity solutions. The land texture came from GTOPO30 data. The texture was differentially enhanced to accentuate areas of low relief. The image is artificially illuminated from the north. For nearly 20 years ExxonMobil has had the opportunity to integrate large grids of marine data received from many sources. This is a recent image that follows our earlier efforts using data acquired from Sandwell, Smith, Rapp, Haxby, The USGS, The World Data Center, and others. Significant improvements in the quality and utility of marine data have been very achieved in part to the efforts and cooperation of many academic and government organizations.