Bathymetry of Lake Erie and Lake Saint Clair

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Bathymetry of Lake Erie and Lake Saint Clair has been compiled as a component of a NOAA project to rescue Great Lakes lake floor geological and geophysical data and make it more accessible. This project is a cooperative effort between investigators at the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center's Marine Geology and Geophysics Division (NGDC/MGG), the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) and the Canadian Hydrographic Service(CHS). Bathymetric sounding data employed in compiling the one-meter bathymetry (National Geophysical Data Center, 1998) were collected over a 100-year period for purposes of navigation safety and nautical charting by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, the NOAA Coast Survey, and the Canadian Hydrographic Service. These bathymetric data, totaling several hundred thousand soundings, are separated four ways in existing archives: by whether they exist in digital form or reside only on paper sheets; and by whether they were collected by the U. S. or Canada. Final assembly of the new bathymetry has resulted from synthesis of bathymetric data from the four sources. Spacing of data control tracklines ranges from 500 to 2500 meters for the open lake and from 125 to 500 meters for nearshore areas. In preparation for bathymetric contouring, digital soundings were converted to metric units and computer plotted in color according to depth range. Contours in metric units were generated directly on overlays from paper sheets and then reduced to compilation scale and patched in. Compilation sheets were scanned and vectorized; and the resulting digital bathymetric contour data constitutes the primary product. The data were hand contoured by geomorphologists to capture and portray the maximum information available, resulting in a degree of detail not attainable with machine contouring and the density of available data. Bathymetric contours were prepared by geologists using sounding data contained in the paper archives at the scale of the survey sheets (scales ranging from 1: 100,000 to 1: 10, 000); or from sounding data contained in digital data bases at standard scales of either 1: 100,000 or 1: 50,000. Details concerning the methods of compilation are given in the western Lake Erie paper (Holcombe, et al., 1997). Bathymetric contours have been spatially reconciled with the NOAA Coast Survey nominal scale 1:80,000 digital vector shoreline, which by definition coincides with the Lake Erie low water datum, the zero-depth employed for bathymetric surveys and nautical charting.
  • Cite as: NOAA National Geophysical Data Center. 1999: Bathymetry of Lake Erie and Lake Saint Clair. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. https://doi.org/10.7289/V5KS6PHK . Accessed [date].
gov.noaa.ngdc.mgg.dem:312
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Distribution Formats
  • Great Lakes Bathymetric contours shapefile format
  • ASCII xyz
  • ASCII raster
  • GRD98 binary raster format
  • JPEG
  • PDF
  • ARC/INFO interchange format
  • Binary Float
  • GeoTiff
  • NetCDF
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Distributor NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
ncei.info@noaa.gov
Dataset Point of Contact NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
ncei.info@noaa.gov
Dataset Point of Contact DEM Information
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
dem.info@noaa.gov
Time Period Unknown to Unknown
Spatial Reference System urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4269Local Lake datum
Spatial Bounding Box Coordinates
West:-84.000000
East:-78.000000
South:41.000000
North:43.000000
Spatial Coverage Map
General Documentation
Associated Resources
  • Great Lakes Bathymetry Project
    • Bathymetric Data Viewer (search)
      The Bathymetric Data Viewer is an interactive map providing discovery, descriptions, and download capability for bathymetric survey data and digital elevation models archived at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).
    • DEM text search (search)
      Text search for locating completed and planned DEMs.
  • Lakefloor Geomorphology of Western Lake Erie
Publication Dates
  • publication: 1999-01-01
Edition First
Dataset Progress Status Complete - production of the data has been completed
Historical archive - data has been stored in an offline storage facility
Data Update Frequency As needed
Supplemental Information
Supplemental information regarding spatial reference. Contours are vertically referenced to lake levels.
Purpose Scientific Research, Commercial Exploration, Fishing, Policy and Decision-making
Use Limitations
  • Not to be used for navigation. Although these data are of high quality and useful for planning and modeling purposes, they are not suitable for navigation. For navigation, please refer to the NOS nautical chart series.
  • Produced by the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Not subject to copyright protection within the United States.
Dataset Citation
  • Cite as: NOAA National Geophysical Data Center. 1999: Bathymetry of Lake Erie and Lake Saint Clair. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. https://doi.org/10.7289/V5KS6PHK . Accessed [date].
Cited Authors
  • NOAA National Geophysical Data Center
Originators
  • NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab
  • NOAA National Ocean Service
  • Canadian Hydrographic Service
Publishers
  • NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
Theme keywords Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Science Keywords
  • Earth Science > Terrestrial Hydrosphere > Surface Water > Surface Water Features > Lakes/Reservoirs
  • Earth Science > Terrestrial Hydrosphere > Surface Water > Surface Water Features > Water Channels
  • Earth Science > Terrestrial Hydrosphere > Surface Water > Surface Water Processes/Measurements > Water Depth
  • Earth Science > Oceans > Bathymetry/Seafloor Topography > Bathymetry
  • Earth Science > Oceans > Bathymetry/Seafloor Topography > Water Depth
  • Earth Science > Oceans > Bathymetry/Seafloor Topography > Water Depth
  • Earth Science > PALEOCLIMATE > Ocean/Lake Records > Sediments
  • Earth Science > PALEOCLIMATE > Ocean/Lake Records > Stratigraphic Sequence
Infoterra Keyword Thesaurus
  • Infoterra > Environmental information > GIS > GIS
  • Infoterra > Environmental monitoring > Monitoring data > Baseline studies
  • Infoterra > Lithosphere > Coastlines > Coastlines
  • Infoterra > Subject disciplines > Geology > Geology
  • Infoterra > Subject disciplines > Geomorphology > Geomorphology
Uncontrolled Keywords
  • Bathymetry
  • Geography and Land Cover > Great Lakes
  • Geomorphology
  • Great Lakes
  • Lacustrine
  • Multibeam
  • Topography
Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Service Keywords
  • DATA ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION > GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS > WEB-BASED GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
  • DATA MANAGEMENT/DATA HANDLING > DATA SEARCH AND RETRIEVAL
  • DATA ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION > VISUALIZATION/IMAGE PROCESSING
Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Service Keywords
  • DATA ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION > GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS > WEB-BASED GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
  • DATA MANAGEMENT/DATA HANDLING > DATA SEARCH AND RETRIEVAL
  • DATA ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION > VISUALIZATION/IMAGE PROCESSING
Data Center keywords Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Data Center Keywords
  • DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce
  • DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC > National Geophysical Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce
Platform keywords Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Platform Keywords
  • Models/Analyses > DEM > Digital Elevation Model
Place keywords Getty Thesuarus of Geographic Names
  • North America > Great Lakes
Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Location Keywords
  • Continent > North America > United States of America > Great Lakes
Project keywords Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Project Keywords
  • ICSU-WDS > International Council for Science - World Data System
Use Constraints
  • Use liability: NOAA and NCEI cannot provide any warranty as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of furnished data. Users assume responsibility to determine the usability of these data. The user is responsible for the results of any application of this data for other than its intended purpose.
Access Constraints
  • Distribution liability: NOAA and NCEI make no warranty, expressed or implied, regarding these data, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty. NOAA and NCEI cannot assume liability for any damages caused by any errors or omissions in these data. If appropriate, NCEI can only certify that the data it distributes are an authentic copy of the records that were accepted for inclusion in the NCEI archives.
Other Constraints Cite as: NOAA National Geophysical Data Center. 1999: Bathymetry of Lake Erie and Lake Saint Clair. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. https://doi.org/10.7289/V5KS6PHK . Accessed [date].
Fees
  • In most cases, electronic downloads of the data are free. However, fees may apply for custom orders, data certifications, copies of analog materials, and data distribution on physical media.
Lineage information for:repository
Processing Steps
  • 2015-04-22T00:00:00 -NOAA created the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) by merging NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), and National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC), including the National Coastal Data Development Center (NCDDC), per the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, Public Law 113-235. NCEI launched publicly on April 22, 2015.
Last Modified: 2020-05-21-06:00
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