Giuseppe Masetti

University of New Hampshire | UNH · Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Knowledge about seafloor depth, or bathymetry, is crucial for various marine activities, including scientific research, offshore industry, safety of navigation, and ocean exploration. Mapping the central Arctic Ocean is challenging due to the presence of perennial sea ice, which limits data collection to icebreakers, submarines, and drifting ice st...

Ocean mapping and nautical cartography are foundational to understanding and managing marine environments [...]

Denmark’s Depth Model version 2.0 (DDM v2.0) is the latest iteration of a Digital Bathymetric Model (DBM) for Danish waters, offering a grid resolution of 50 meters. The compilation integrates hundreds of survey datasets, including both modern and historical sources, as well as satellite-derived and crowdsourced bathymetric data. The model is refer...

A coordinated multi-year ocean exploration campaign on the Blake Plateau offshore of the southeastern U.S. has mapped what appears to be the most expansive cold-water coral (CWC) mound province thus far discovered. Nearly continuous CWC mound features span an area up to 500 km long and 110 km wide, with a core area of high-density mounds up to 254...

When planning for ship navigation or compiling data for a bathymetry map, the navigator or mapper uses many different sources of bathymetry information and navigation hazards. The quality of these sources is inconsistent in general, however, making it challenging to provide a coherent picture for planning. Here, we describe an approach for consiste...

Version of Record now available at http://doi.org/10.1080/01490419.2023.2166173

The next generation of ocean mappers need to master programming skills to meet increasingly higher expectations for timely ping-to-public data workflows. As such, the e-learning Python for Ocean Mapping (ePOM) project was established at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/NOAA-UNH Joint Hydrographic Center (University of New Hampshire). The pr...

Denmark’s Depth Model (DDM) is a Digital Bathymetric Model based on hundreds of bathymetric survey datasets and historical sources within the Danish Exclusive Economic Zone. The DDM represents the first publicly released model covering the Danish waters with a grid resolution of 50 m. When modern datasets are not available for a given area, histori...

Reviewing hydrographic data for nautical charting is still a predominately manual process, performed by experienced analysts and based on directives developed over the years by the hydrographic office of interest. With the primary intent to increase the effectiveness of the review process, a set of automated procedures has been developed over the p...

Bathymetry (seafloor depth), is a critical parameter providing the geospatial context for a multitude of marine scientific studies. Since 1997, the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) has been the authoritative source of bathymetry for the Arctic Ocean. IBCAO has merged its efforts with the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO-Seabed 203...

The Danish Geodata Agency and the Canadian Hydrographic Service have presented their joint vision about Trusted Crowd-Sourced Bathymetry this week during the 9th meeting of the IHO CrowdSourced Bathymetry Working Group (CSBWG).

The increasing maturity of the current technologic landscape makes the adoption of Trusted Crowd-Sourced Bathymetry (TCSB) finally achievable. Especially for very sensitive areas like the Arctic region, TCSB has the potential to become one of the primary sources of geospatial information both for safety and security of the maritime territory as wel...

Charted bathymetry encompasses the cartographer's effort to accurately describe submarine topography based on the source information. A key factor in the selection process is that, at any location, the charted features do not give a false impression that the water depth is deeper than it actually is. Our research work focused on development of an a...

Seafloor acoustic backscatter collected by multibeam echosounders (MBES) is routinely used to generate products such as backscatter mosaics and angular response curves. However, the usability of backscatter products has been hindered by a lack of consistent outputs that may be the result of differences in sonar calibration, data collection and proc...

Presentation given at the Canadian Hydrographic Conference 2020 Dates: Mon., Feb. 24, 2020 – Thu., Feb. 27, 2020 Location: Quebec City, Canada

The next generation of ocean mappers will need to master programming skills to face the increasingly higher expectations for timely ping-to-public data workflows. As such, the e-learning Python for Ocean Mapping (ePOM) project was established to support new ocean mapping students and professionals in reaching a minimum level of programming skills....

Presentation given at the Canadian Hydrographic Conference 2020 Dates: Mon., Feb. 24, 2020 – Thu., Feb. 27, 2020 Location: Quebec City, Canada

Accurate seafloor maps serve as a critical component for understanding marine ecosystems and guiding informed ocean management decisions. From 2004 to 2015, the Atlantic Ocean continental margin offshore of the United States has been systematically mapped using multibeam sonars. This work was done in support of the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf (...

The efficient acquisition of high-quality data using modern seafloor mapping systems is too often limited by the poor awareness of the oceanographic environment in which the surveys are conducted. As such, two tools that support ocean mappers in accessing the increasingly reliable predictions from NOAA's operational 3-D oceanographic forecast model...

Despite recent technological advances in seafloor mapping systems, the resulting products and the overall operational efficiency of surveys are often affected by poor awareness of the oceanographic environment in which the surveys are conducted. Increasingly reliable ocean nowcast and forecast model predictions of key environmental variables – from...

Seafloor backscatter mosaics are now routinely produced from multibeam echosounder data and used in a wide range of marine applications. However, large differences (>5 dB) can often be observed between the mosaics produced by different software packages processing the same dataset. Without transparency of the processing pipeline and the lack of con...

The compilation of nautical charts comprises a number of tasks that are often monotonous, time consuming, and, as such, prone to human error. A long-term goal of the hydrographic community has thus been the automation of the process due to the unquestionable advantages of automation to the accuracy, reliability, and consistency of products for a re...

Modern ocean mapping relies heavily on complex algorithms that may strongly affect the reported outputs (e.g., gridded bathymetry, acoustic mosaics). When implemented in commercial software, these algorithms usually cannot be directly examined, and thus represent black boxes. To ease the understanding of existing algorithms and the creation of bet...

Slides presented by Giuseppe Masetti (UNH, CCOM/JHC) and Tyanne Faulkes (NOAA, OCS PHB) during the "Effective Seabed Mapping Workflow" Workshop. June 19 and 20, 2019. Canberra, ACT, Australia

The nautical chart is one of the fundamental tools in navigation used by mariners to plan and safely execute voyages. Its compilation follows strict cartographic constraints with the most prominent being that of the safety. Thereby, the cartographer is called to make the selection of the bathymetric information for portrayal on charts in a way that...

BSWG meeting

Depth curves and charted soundings are two structural components of nautical charts, both derived from a more detailed dataset through generalization. Once depth curves are generated, the cartographer makes a selection of soundings that complements the depth curves and other features carrying bathymetric information in the adequate representation o...

Although backscatter mosaics of the seafloor are now routinely produced from multibeam sonar data, significant differences have been observed in the products generated by different software when processing the same dataset. This represents a major limitation to a number of possible uses of backscatter mosaics, including quantitative analysis, monit...

Most ocean mapping surveys collect seafloor reflectivity (backscatter) along with bathymetry. While the consistency of bathymetry processed by commonly adopted algorithms is well established, surprisingly large variability is observed between the backscatter mosaics generated by different software packages when processing the same dataset. Such a s...

The rising trend in automation is constantly pushing the hydrographic field toward the exploration and the adoption of more effective approaches for each step of the ping-to-public workflow. However, the large amount of data collected by modern acquisition systems - especially when paired with the force multiplier factor provided by autonomous vess...

The workshop provides an overview of a number of Python-based, open tools that are freely available in the Pydro and HydrOffice frameworks. Each tool aims to solve/automate common ocean-mapping tasks. No previous knowledge about Python or the specific frameworks is required.

Abstract: When planning for ship navigation or compiling data for a bathymetry map, the navigator or mapper use many different sources of bathymetry information and navigation hazards. Sources include electronic charts at different scales, gridded bathymetry of different ages and quality, special purpose vector products, sonar data, crowdsourced da...

A presentation describing HydrOffice Sound Speed Manager and SmartMap tools in support of the Multibeam training at INMARTECH 2018, Woods Hole, MA.

An objective measurement of the bathymetric uncertainty introduced by sonar bottom detection has been proposed (Lurton and Augustin, 2009) to overcome the sonar-specific heuristic solutions proposed by constructors. This approach pairs each sounding with an estimation of sonar detection uncertainty (SDU) based on the width of the signal envelope (a...

Backscatter mosaics of the seafloor are now routinely produced from multibeam sonar data, and used in a wide range of marine applications. However, significant differences (up to 5 dB) have been observed between the levels of mosaics produced by different software processing a same dataset. This is a major detriment to several possible uses of back...

Timely and accurate identification of change detection for areas depicted on nautical charts constitutes a key task for marine cartographic agencies in supporting maritime safety. Such a task is usually achieved through manual or semi-automated processes, based on best practices developed over the years requiring a substantial level of human commit...

Timely and accurate identification of change detection for areas depicted on nautical charts constitutes a key task for marine cartographic agencies in supporting maritime safety. Such a task is usually achieved through manual or semi-automated processes, based on best practices developed over the years requiring a substantial level of human commit...

Timely and accurate identification of change detection for areas depicted on nautical charts constitutes a key task for marine cartographic agencies in supporting maritime safety. Such a task is usually achieved through manual or semi-automated processes, based on best practices developed over the years requiring a substantial level of human commit...

Modern multibeam sonars and processing software typically produce geo-located bathymetry and backscatter mosaic products, thus offering the opportunity to treat both data sets together to support seafloor characterization. However, there are few studies that have offered general methods for using machine-focused (automated) approaches for seafloor...

A robust and flexible technique to segment seafloor acoustic mapping data by analyzing co-located bathymetric digital elevation models and acoustic backscatter mosaics is presented. The algorithm first uses principles of topographic openness, pattern recognition, and texture classification to identify geomorphic elements of the seafloor or “area ke...

A tool to estimate the ray-tracing component of the surveyed depth uncertainty was created and made publicly available through web services and a Web GIS. The estimation is based on a spatial variability analysis at the time of validity of two popular, global-scope sources of oceanographic environmental data. The tool has potential applications in...

The review of hydrographic and cartographic data sets is still too often based on tedious and error-prone manual actions; however, these same characteristics make the work suitable for automation. As such, a software suite of task-specific solutions was developed to support the reviewer. The specific application of these tools to NOAA Coast Survey...

Since the Tortonian, the geodynamic evolution of the Tyrrhenian Sea has been driven by an eastward roll-back of the entire Apennine subduction system, triggering distinct episodes of back-arc basin formation with spots of oceanic crust. Major structural differences are observed between northern and southern portions of the Tyrrhenian Sea, reflectin...

A detection methodology for marine debris presence after a natural disaster is described. The methodology is based both on a predictive model and a Bayesian hierarchical spatial method. The chosen fusion approach relies on auto-logistic regression to weight the outputs of multiple target detection algorithms, as well as to capture the intrinsic pro...

HUDDL is a data description language, written in XML, designed to simplify and standardize the description of hydrographic data files. In addition to providing a standard way to communicate a data format specification between manufacturer and user, in computer-readable format, HUDDL descriptions can also be used to automatically generate both docum...

Since many of the attempts to introduce a universal hydrographic data format have failed or have been only partially successful, a different approach is proposed. Our solution is the Hydrographic Universal Data Description Language (HUDDL), a descriptive XML-based language that permits the creation of a standardized description of (past, present, a...

Attempting to assess the risk of a release from a potentially polluting marine site (PPMS) can be a very subjective process. The Marine Site Risk Index (MaSiRI) is designed to provide a more objective approach to this process by adopting a table-based evaluation scheme, while still allowing for the inevitable unknown conditions by including a subje...

An increasing availability of geospatial marine data provides an opportunity for hydrographic agencies to contribute to the identification of potentially polluting marine sites (PPMS). This new acronym has been created not only to refer to shipwrecks of modern vessels, but also for other types of marine sites such as dumping areas, pipelines, etc....

The caldera of the Phlegraean Fields (also known as Campi Flegrei) is one of the most dangerous and populated volcanic area in the world, covering an area that comprises the western part of Naples and the Gulf of Pozzuoli. The main peculiarity of current volcanic activity is the gradual and periodic lift (positive or negative) of part of the Earth'...

The method described attempts to remotely identify the shape of an anthropogenic object, such as a wreck of a modern vessel, using reflectivity data from Multi-Beam Echosounder (MBES) systems. In the beam domain, the backscatter strength values - geometrically and radiometrically corrected - are used to extract a large number of Gray Level Co-occur...

The paper's aim is to evaluate mosaicking and analysis of backscatter angular responses as adequate techniques to quickly characterize the seafloor adjacent to shipwrecks, extending the results of a limited number of grabs. Both techniques have been applied to the case-study of the VLCC Haven shipwreck site, applying the approach known as Geocoder...