Satellite Bathymetry May Aid Offshore Territorial Claims
The 2500 m depth line is a key element
in a nation's offshore territorial claim
 The satellite bathymetry
depth line (in red) correlates well with
that from ship soundings (in black). Most areas have only sparse
ship data, so depths from satellite help locate the 2500 m line.
Satellite depth estimates
by NESDIS
scientists very nearly meet the Commission on the
Limits of the Continental Shelf guidelines. Additionally,
systematic differences in depth between estimated and
multibeam bathymetry have been examined. A comparison of multibeam
bathymetry data from NGDC
(Coastal Relief Model) with estimated
bathymetry from the Sandwell and Smith 1997 (S&S) grid, for a
region offshore New Jersey was completed. In the figure below, the
2500m isobath from S&S (red line) was found to lie systematically
seaward of the 2500m isobath from the NGDC
model (black line) (see figure). An analysis of data processing corrections and errors
was completed in support of the NGDC
data base.
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