National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Photomosaic images of Brewers Bay Coral Reef, Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands collected on 08-16-2017 (NCEI Accession 0178633)

This dataset contains photomosaic images of coral reef benthic communities, created as a product for the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program’s (CRCP) National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). Photomosaics are a composite of many underwater images, digitally stitched together into a single cohesive photo. These mosaics have approximately the same resolution and clarity of the component pictures but collectively produce a “landscape view” of the coral reef community within each plot.

To produce a photomosaic, a scuba diver holds the mosaic rig, containing two separate cameras, above the reef plot while swimming back and forth in a crosshatch pattern. Images are taken from roughly one to two meters above the benthos, at a rate of one image per second per camera. This swimming technique allows the mosaic rig to gather 1500-3000 images which are then compiled into a single photomosaic using Photoscan (Agisoft).

Six reef plots (10 m x 10 m each) were captured in Brewers Bay in Saint Thomas, United States Virgin Islands as part of this dataset. A total of six TIFF files are included in this data submission, each corresponding to one reef plot.