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OGC Demonstrator Showcases TCarta’s Space-Based Approach to Intertidal Zone Monitoring

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In contribution to the OGC Federated Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure (FMSDI) 2025, TCarta successfully demonstrated the power of satellite technology in monitoring dynamic coastal environments. This OGC demonstrator—centered on the Hurst Spit region in the UK—highlighted how space-based data can significantly improve hydrospatial awareness and coastal zone management.

Planet Labs imagery demonstrates the significant tide-range present around Hurst Spit, UK​

Leveraging multispectral imagery from PlanetLabs and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from Capella Space, TCarta derived high-resolution coastline vectors and intertidal zone boundaries tied to real-time water levels. These vectors, available as both a time series and real-time snapshots updated every five minutes, were benchmarked against tide gauges and tide models, offering high temporal accuracy.

Gif demonstrates Satellite Derived Coastline changes(green) in 5 minute increments, overlaid with Satellite Derived Bathymetry

To ground truth and validate the results, TCarta compared their satellite-derived coastlines with traditional datasets from the UK Hydrographic Office and Ordnance Survey. This revealed critical variations based on data source, resolution, and tide level, underscoring the challenges of managing a constantly shifting land-sea interface.

The demonstrator also featured satellite-derived bathymetry (SDB) using Sentinel-2 and PlanetScope imagery, showcasing how space-based remote sensing methods produce reliable depth data in areas inaccessible to traditional survey methods. These datasets, delivered via OGC-compliant APIs and visualized through a custom web application, enable integrated coastal monitoring and data sharing across platforms.

There are multiple, disparate coastline and intertidal features from different sources

Lessons learned emphasized the influence of vegetation, seasonality, and spatial resolution on remote sensing outputs, while recommendations pointed toward the use of dynamic, water-level-attributed coastline products and the integration of AI/ML for improved feature classification.

TCarta’s demonstrator is a powerful proof of concept for how space-based technologies can bridge the gap between terrestrial and marine data, offering scalable, near-real-time solutions for coastal resilience, planning, and environmental stewardship.

Click here to view and interact with the OGC demonstrator!

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Enhance Bathy Lidar Collection Planning with Space-Based Water Quality Monitoring

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Accurate and timely environmental data is critical for the success of hydrographic surveys. One increasingly valuable tool in this domain is space-based water quality monitoring, which offers powerful support for airborne LiDAR bathymetry programs. By assessing daily and historical water clarity conditions from satellite imagery, this method provides essential guidance for flight planning, acquisition timing, data quality assurance and reporting.

Why Water Quality Matters for LiDAR

The performance of bathymetric LiDAR systems is highly dependent on water clarity. Turbid or sediment-rich waters scatter and absorb the laser pulses used in LiDAR surveys, reducing their ability to penetrate the water column and reach the seafloor. This makes understanding water quality—especially parameters like turbidity, suspended particulate concentration, and light attenuation—vital for ensuring successful, cost-efficient LiDAR acquisitions.

Existing methods rely on in situ measurements, which are costly and require mobilizing personnel and equipment. As a result, data collection is often limited to a few points. Alternatively, some approaches depend on local knowledge or visual assessments from the air. While these approaches can help determine broad acquisition windows, they often lack spatial and temporal precision which is vital for detailed planning and contextualizing data quality. 

Processed multispectral satellite image from February 2023 showing Turbidity (FNU)

Space-Based Monitoring: A Strategic Advantage

Using high and moderate resolution multispectral satellite imagery from platforms such as Sentinel-2 and PlanetScope, TCarta offers a robust and cost-effective satellite water quality monitoring service. This service enables both historical and near daily evaluation of water conditions across survey sites.

For planning bathymetric lidar flights, satellite-derived data can:

  • Identify optimal collection windows when water clarity is most favorable.
  • Detect turbidity plumes that may limit LiDAR acquisition.
  • Support adaptive flight planning, adjusting flight plans or survey sites to maximize  success based on physics-based analysis.
  • Contextualize data quality after acquisition.

Core Water Quality Metrics

Key parameters analyzed through satellite-based methods include:

  • Kd490: The diffuse attenuation coefficient at 490nm (blue/green). Quantifies the rate at which blue/green light is absorbed and scattered as it travels through the water column.
  • bb490: The backscattering coefficient at 490nm. Indicates the amount of blue/green light scattered back towards the sensor by particles and other constituents in the water column.
  • bbp533: Particulate backscattering coefficient at 533nm. Indicates the amount of green light scattered back toward the sensor by particles. A good proxy for LiDAR laser penetration.
  • Secchi Depth: An indication of how deep light can penetrate into the water column using a simulated Secchi disk.
  • SPM: An estimate of the amount of suspended particulate matter in the water column.
  • Turbidity: The amount of scattered light proportional to the concentration of particles in the water. Sensitive to particle size, shape, composition, density, and color.
Example of customized Water Quality Dashboard

By combining daily PlanetScope observations with historical Sentinel-2 data, daily monitoring data can be evaluated against historical trends for more accurate anomaly detection. This customizable multi-temporal approach helps surveyors understand both seasonal patterns and real-time shifts in water clarity, supporting strategic mission execution.

Broader Applications: From Planning to Environmental Monitoring

In addition to supporting LiDAR surveys, TCarta’s water quality monitoring is also used across multiple sectors. One key application is the detection and tracking of harmful algal blooms (HABs), which pose risks to ecosystems, public health, and fisheries. Industries such as aquaculture, coastal engineering, and marine construction also benefit from reliable, up-to-date water quality information.

Deliverables

Clients receive access to a customized and dynamic web dashboard along with downloadable reports, graphs, and time series charts. These tools allow users to:

  • Monitor trends over time.
  • Compare current water conditions with historical baselines.
  • Make informed decisions during and after survey operations.
  • Report on water conditions as they relate to collection success.
  • Identify if reflights to infill data gaps will be successful.

Case Study: Florida Coastal Mapping:

Mapping Florida Waters

A Smarter Approach to Survey Success

Space-based water quality monitoring transforms how bathymetric LiDAR missions are planned and executed. By giving surveyors “eyes in the sky,” it enhances operational efficiency, data quality, and overall mission outcomes.

As a leader in satellite-derived marine data solutions, TCarta offers satellite-based Water Quality Monitoring as a key service for LiDAR survey planning and operational support. This forward-looking approach continues to revolutionize the way we collect, analyze, and act on hydrospatial information.

Please contact us through the form below to scope your project or discuss capabilities

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Connecting Remote Communities: Providing Up-to-Date Data with Satellite-Delivered Bathymetry

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By: David Bautista

Coastal zones have always been an attractive extent for human settlements, providing plenty of natural resources and economic advantages. This interface between land and sea provides multiple benefits, including commerce, trade and transportation, marine resources, and tourism. 

Unfortunately, settlements in far-away and isolated regions face diverse environmental and social challenges. Limited access to health, supplies, and education services; demographic changes affecting the available labor force such as out-migration; higher costs of living; high reliance on natural resources for sustenance; and extreme weather conditions are some examples. 

The effects of global warming also have a major impact on those communities, particularly in the Arctic and Subarctic regions. Remote coastal communities are more vulnerable to environmental and socio-economic impacts of climate change, including coastal flooding, shoreline erosion, saltwater intrusion, habitat loss, and threats to economic activities (fishing, harvesting, and tourism).

There is a greater need for accurate and up-to-date information, especially to understand the morpho-hydrodynamic behavior of coastal areas (seasonal changes in erosion, and transport of sediment and deposition). Monitoring these very dynamic natural systems is thus of great importance for supporting remote communities as well as the conservation of natural resources.

For this reason, governments step in to support adaptability and resilience, and adequate levels of connectivity. Bathymetry with high spatiotemporal resolution is the primary and essential input for understanding the dynamics of coastal systems. However, traditional survey methods, such as multibeam echosounder (MBES) ship-borne, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) airborne, and ground-based are not the most suitable techniques for addressing these concerns.

Traditional survey methods (MBES and LiDAR) provide very high resolution with fine vertical accuracy. However, these techniques face economic and logistic constraints, as well as challenges to map large areas relatively quickly. Thus, Spaceborne Remote Sensing techniques represent an efficient and cost-effective method for mapping remote and hazardous environments. 

Satellite Derived Bathymetry (SDB) can return seafloor depths using spaceborne sensors, such as Sentinel-2, LandSat, Pléiades, WorldView, GeoEye, Planet, and Capella SAR. SDB provides low-cost and un-intrusive solutions with the ability to map changes over time in large remote areas. As a result, SDB is considered to be an overly appropriate alternative to provide data acquisition in remote communities. SDB can be a cost-effective and efficient way to fill in data gaps, support safe navigation (updating nautical charts data in the coastal waters), and enhance the understanding of the marine environment.

10m SDB over Inukjuak, QC, Canada

Through a Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) contract and with IIC Technologies as Prime Contractor, TCarta facilitated 10m SDB datasets in the waters around Inukjuak and Ulukhaktok, Canada.

Inukjuak is a remote, traditional Inuit community located in Nunavik, Northern Quebec, Canada, with more than 1,500 people bordering the Hudson Bay. The region is influenced by the Southern Arctic conditions and characterized by a cold dry climate with a continuous permafrost. The mean annual temperature is -6ºC; cold conditions persist over long periods during winter (mid-November to March), where temperatures less than -15ºC persist and thaws are infrequent. Hudson Bay usually freezes by the end of December, near the coastline, and ice usually melts in late June or early July.

Ulukhaktok, another Inuit community with fewer than 500 inhabitants, is located on the west coast of Victoria Island, the second largest island in the Canadian Arctic archipelago and the ninth-largest island on Earth. There are prominent cliffs that line the shore, lowlands, and numerous ponds, lakes, and rivers. Seasons are weather and ice dependent. Summer is characterized by open water from early July to September; during fall (October through mid-November) sea ice freeze-up, and winter is characterized by frozen sea conditions. Speed and direction of the wind influence sea ice freeze-up and breakup.

Both communities are only reachable by plane, helicopter or boat. Its economy depends on hunting,  fishing, trapping, and gathering; hunters and fishers catch wildlife and fish from the waters and islands of Hudson Bay in Inukjuak and the coastal waters of Prince Albert Sound and Minto Inlet in Ulukhaktok.

Understanding the importance and relevance of surveying all optically shallow water in these regions; TCarta deployed a hydrospatial survey with cutting-edge remote sensing techniques. The negative effects of local water column and atmospheric conditions were controlled using multi-temporal image composites. Sentinel-2 Level-1C imagery was selected, and a minimum of 100 singular atmospherically corrected images were statistically combined. The combination of multi-temporal images allowed to obtain the “best” pixels for SDB derivation.

TCarta successfully delivered 982.8 km² of SDB coverage, 855.2 km² in Inukjuak and 127.6 km² in Ulukhaktok. The efforts for this hydrospatial survey will benefit both communities with up-to-date data. Lastly, TCarta is pleased to announce how the produced SDB accomplished the overlaying goals of filling the gaps in coastal bathymetry, enhancing understanding of the marine environment (especially, the fact that its economy certainly depends on hunting and fishing, and filling data gaps supports such activities), and supporting safe navigation in the Canadian Arctic. This type of project exemplifies the necessity of state-of-the-art SDB technology in remote locations, and the capabilities of hydrospatial solutions.

TCarta, Seabed 2030, and Marine Institute Summer Interns Produce 40,000 km² of SDB

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The future of hydrospatial is looking bright

Six students participated in the summer-long paid SDB internship facilitated by TCarta and held at the Marine Institute (MI) of Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland. All six students are recent graduates or currently enrolled in the MI Ocean Mapping program. Mobilization of the program was shared among TCarta, Memorial University and The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project, which seeks to inspire the complete mapping of the seafloor by 2030.

6 Marine Institute summer interns, 2 TCarta employees, and 1 Marine Institute staff member

With the 2nd annual Internship wrapping up this week, the student interns successfully produced 39,304 km2 of 10m resolution Satellite Derived Bathymetry (SDB) in 4 areas of interest around the world in a mere 8 weeks! SDB was produced on the Coastline of Somalia, Mosquito Coast, the Galapagos, and  islands of the Lesser Antilles. This Bathymetry will be contributed to the Seabed 2030 initiative, as were last year’s internship results in Madagascar, Newfoundland and the Canadian Arctic.

Students were taught many key capabilities during the summer. For instance, they were introduced to the variety of satellite imagery available for SDB and studied the strengths of each for certain project types. TCarta also instructed the interns on how to use a pre-processing tool to prepare in situ data from sonar or Lidar as calibration datasets for processing the satellite images.

Furthermore, they learned how to apply an enhanced version of a traditional band ratio algorithm along with a machine learning algorithm in iterative processes to derive water depth measurements from individual image pixels.

These hydrospatial skills have proved valuable- not only contributing to the missions of the Seabed 2030 initiative- but also to help prepare and inspire students to be the hydrographers of the future. We are proud of the valuable technical skills and knowledge they have brought and will continue to bring to the world of Hydrography.

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Minding the Gap in Uncharted Waters

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By: Dr. Chris Ilori

In the vast expanse of our changing world, regions where the waters remain largely uncharted are increasingly traversed due to the shifting tides of climate change and global trade. The Arctic, with its melting ice and expanding maritime activity, exemplifies the pressing need for accurate bathymetric data. Amidst this uncharted territory, the power of Satellite-Derived Bathymetry (SDB) emerges as a ray of hope, offering a solution to navigate these waters safely and sustainably. At TCarta, we live by the “Mind the Gap” philosophy, striving to bridge the divide in our understanding of remote environments such as the Arctic. This blog explores the potential of SDB, with a special focus on the innovative Radiative Transfer Model (RTM) methodology and its capability to map depths in areas that conventional mapping techniques have yet to uncover.

Mind the Gap in Navigational Safety Amidst Rising Maritime Traffic

Utilizing satellite data to measure and model the depths of water bodies, SDB offers an efficient and effective means for charting shallow coastal waters, a task increasingly vital along Canada’s extensive coastline—the longest in the world. This feature places Canada at the forefront of maritime navigation challenges, especially in the Arctic, where the logistical hurdles and costs of traditional survey methods are amplified by the harsh environment and the vast distances involved. The consequences of inadequate mapping in such expansive and ecologically sensitive regions can be severe. Ship groundings, a direct result of navigational errors, risk disastrous outcomes including environmental damage, loss of life, and significant economic tolls. Such incidents can disrupt vital shipping routes, necessitate costly rescue operations, and lead to severe penalties. Moreover, the Arctic’s delicate ecosystem faces threats from potential oil spills, with far-reaching effects on marine life and the livelihoods of Indigenous communities. Precise and comprehensive mapping, therefore, is not just a matter of enhancing maritime safety but also about adopting a proactive stance towards environmental conservation.

Mind the Mind the Gap in Bathymetric Mapping Methods

RTM has transformed the field of bathymetric mapping, especially in challenging regions like Hudson Bay where traditional in-situ data collection is scarce. It employs a physics-based approach grounded in radiative transfer theory to simulate how light interacts with the marine environment. This process is critical for translating satellite imagery into accurate bathymetric data and involves two primary steps:

  • Generation of a Look-Up Table (LUT): The first step in the RTM process involves creating a Look-Up Table (LUT) of remote sensing reflectance (Rrs) spectra, which are a product of atmospheric correction and serve as a major input into an RTM. The table also includes all possible combinations of water column optical properties (absorption and backscattering coefficients) and the seafloor reflectance of the area being mapped.
  • Inversion Process: Following the creation of the LUT, the inversion process begins. This step involves comparing the observed Rrs from satellite imagery against the simulated scenarios within the LUT to identify the closest match. By employing techniques such as least squares matching, this comparison allows for the retrieval of precise bathymetric parameters, including water depth and seafloor characteristics, specific to each image pixel.

Mind the Gap in Advancements: Recent Progress in RTM-based SDB at Hudson Bay

In exploring RTM’s application for bathymetric mapping, advances in SDB, especially in Hudson Bay, highlight RTM-based SDB’s potential. This region has hosted pioneering research, including the first Canadian application of RTM-based SDB. The initial study achieved a mapping depth of up to 4.5 meters with an RMSE of about 1 meter, noting atmospheric correction challenges. A scientist involved in both this foundational work and recent RTM projects at TCarta in Hudson Bay provides continuity. This expertise has refined our approach to atmospheric correction, essential for precise bathymetric mapping

Recent efforts have extended mapping capabilities to 20 meters, although Crowd Sourced Bathymetry (CBS) used for validation reaches only 11.9 meters. The RMSE for these mappings is around 1.2 meters, reflecting the commitment to accuracy. This project aims to compare RTM-derived SDB data with CSB from the area to ensure accuracy and reliability. The SDB map below (Figure 1) shows where our RTM methodology has been applied in Hudson Bay. It illustrates the progress and highlights the effectiveness of RTM-based SDB. This continuity significantly informs our approach to atmospheric correction, pinpointing it as a critical link.

Overcoming Atmospheric Correction Challenges

The advancements in Hudson Bay reflect a concerted effort to refine the accuracy of atmospheric correction. Tackling historical challenges head-on, such as the ‘plane parallel assumption’ and the unique difficulties presented by low sun elevation in northern latitudes, TCarta has developed strategies to refine the RTM process. These improvements mark a significant leap in our ability to precisely adjust for atmospheric influences, improving the quality of SDB products. This adjustment in RTM, tailored to fit the specific atmosphere in Hudson Bay, demonstrates the progress achieved. It not only addresses previous limitations but also establishes a new standard for RTM-based SDB in challenging environments. The dedication to enhancing atmospheric correction underscores the essence of our “Mind the Gap” philosophy, bridging past gaps with present advancements.

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Delving into African Waters: Navigating Lake Malawi’s Depths with Satellite-Derived Bathymetry

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By: Chris Ilori

Nestled in the heart of Africa, Lake Malawi, known as the ‘Calendar Lake’ due to its dimensions (365 miles by 52 miles), is a geographical marvel. This third-largest African lake, and ninth-largest globally, is a thriving hub of biodiversity with over 1000 distinct freshwater fish species, 99% exclusive to this unique ecosystem. Join us on an enlightening exploration of the transformative impact of Satellite-Derived Bathymetry (SDB) on Lake Malawi and the diverse waters of Africa.

TCarta’s Regi0nal Marine Basemap – Lake Malawi

SDB in Lake Malawi: Charting New Frontiers and Exploring Potential Applications

Mapping and Monitoring Shoreline Changes: SDB, with high-resolution satellite imagery, becomes indispensable for mapping and monitoring changes along Lake Malawi’s shoreline. Identification of areas prone to deforestation, bush fires, and poor land husbandry empowers environmental authorities to implement targeted interventions for habitat preservation and restoration. Through change detection, patterns emerge, guiding adaptive strategies for sustainable shoreline management.

Detecting and Mitigating Soil Erosion: Detailed underwater topography obtained through SDB allows the identification of regions vulnerable to soil erosion. Mapping and monitoring enable conservationists and land managers to implement strategies for mitigating erosion, preserving the lake’s ecosystem integrity, and protecting against sedimentation.

Monitoring Fish Populations and Fisheries Management: Addressing the critical concern of fish overexploitation, SDB, combined with fisheries data, contributes to monitoring fish populations and habitats. This information aids in developing sustainable fisheries management strategies, ensuring the conservation of fish stocks for environmental and community benefit.

Assessing Water Extraction Impact: SDB offers a unique perspective on the lake’s bathymetry, enhancing the understanding of the impact of heavy water extraction for irrigation. Assessment of changes in water levels and flow patterns enables informed decisions on water usage, balancing agricultural needs with the preservation of the lake’s hydrological balance.

Beyond Lake Malawi: A Pan-African Perspective

Intercontinental Navigation and Infrastructure Planning: Recognizing the significance of African lakes as critical waterways, SDB data integration extends beyond Lake Malawi. Enhancing navigation safety and contributing to informed infrastructure planning on an intercontinental scale will ensure responsible development along the shores of lakes and rivers across Africa.

Ecological Research Across the Continent: SDB facilitates in-depth ecological research, enabling scientists to study relationships between bathymetry and biodiversity on a broader scale. This information is invaluable for identifying critical habitats, migration routes, and guiding conservation efforts to preserve the natural heritage of lakes and rivers throughout Africa.

Disaster Management: The role of SDB extends beyond scientific exploration and infrastructure planning; it plays a pivotal role in disaster management across African water bodies. SDB becomes an invaluable tool in anticipating and responding to natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes by providing real-time and detailed underwater topography data. This proactive approach allows for better preparedness, early warning systems, and swift response efforts to mitigate the impact of disasters and protect both human and ecological interests.

Proactive Adaptation to Climate Change Effects: The dynamic nature of SDB data transforms it into a proactive tool for adaptation. By continuously monitoring alterations in underwater topography and temperature, SDB offers early indicators of potential climate change impacts on African lakes. This proactive approach allows stakeholders, including environmental authorities and conservationists, to promptly anticipate and respond to emerging challenges.

Celebrating the production of Satellite-Derived Bathymetry data in Lake Malawi unveils its potential for the entire African Great Lakes region. The ‘Calendar Lake’ becomes a gateway to understanding the intricate dynamics of Africa’s water bodies, and SDB can guide us toward sustainable resource management, environmental conservation, and responsible development, aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the vast expanse of Lake Malawi and beyond, Satellite-Derived Bathymetry is not just a technological marvel but a key to unlocking the secrets and ensuring the future well-being of Africa’s precious water systems.

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Seamless Topobathy DEM Pilot Project in Alaska using SDB

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By Natalie Treadwell

In recent years, the field of bathymetric surveying has seen significant advancements, specifically with Satellite Derived Bathymetry (SDB), which has been used to map several regions of the world’s littoral areas. However, in Alaska, the process of SDB validation has been made quite challenging due to a lack of comprehensive support for Alaska-specific datums and geodetic transformations. Updates to the NOAA software VDatum that include Alaska are set to be published around 2026, however in the meantime, researchers at TCarta have been working on novel workarounds to map these coastal regions that are highly susceptible to change due to climate change and erosion. Through a NOAA Office of Coastal Management contract and with Axim Geospatial as Prime Contractor, TCarta completed a pilot project to create a seamless topobathy digital elevation model (DEM) at 2m resolution in Alaska. This pilot project set out to demonstrate how SDB can be used to fill in data gaps in hard to map areas due to accessibility, prohibitive costs and narrow windows of opportunities to perform survey work. 

The survey encompassed three extensive areas within Alaska: Kachemak Bay, located in the southwestern part of the Kenai Peninsula, covering 971 km², characterized by extensive tidal flats, braided drainage, and marshland; Teller, situated northwest of Nome on the Seward Peninsula, spanning an area of 1165 km² and a mix of shallow areas, sedimentary deposits, and rugged, uneven terrain due to geological shifts and formation; and Point Hope, situated on the Lisburne Peninsula, encompassing approximately 2,329 km² and the shallow sandy shelf gradually deepening into the Arctic Ocean basin, experiencing erosion due to strong currents resulting in large shifts in coastal bathymetry. Utilizing a combination of newly-produced satellite-derived bathymetry (SDB) and freely available sources including satellite, topobathymetric, and terrestrial LiDAR, single and multi-beam sonar, iFSAR, and interpolation, TCarta generated highly accurate digital elevation models (DEMs) of underwater and subsurface terrain.

The SDB was created using Maxar’s Worldview and GeoEye imagery, and Planet imagery, selected based on visual inspection of environmental conditions to avoid attributes such as water turbidity, glint and solar glare, and cloud cover or shadows. TCarta used internal atmospheric and glint correction tools to enhance images in areas where environmental conditions could not be avoided. It’s Alaska after all, and the sunny days free from glacial melt turbidity can be few and far between. Two primary algorithms were employed to generate the SDB surfaces:

  • Random Forest (RF): A supervised machine learning method that incorporates spectral bands from satellite sensors and bathymetry data for depth estimation.
  • Radiative Transfer Method (RTM): Utilizes a radiative transfer model to relate remote sensing reflectance (Rrs) to inherent optical properties of water, bottom reflectance, and water depth.

The choice of algorithm depended on in-situ data availability and quality. For instance, the RF method was predominantly used, while the RTM method was only employed in areas lacking bathymetry data intersections.

The vertical datum for this project was the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88) (meters) referenced to GEOID12. The chart to ellipsoid datum transformation was done using an internally developed ellipsoidally referenced tidal datum model (ERTDM) based on Riley et al., 2016, as a replacement for VDatum for Alaska. The ERTDM was utilized to perform the VDatum transformation from MLLW to NAVD88 (GEOID12). A MLLW – NAVD88 (GEOID 12) triangulated mesh covering all the Alaskan tidal benchmarks, provided by the Coast Guard Survey Development Lab, was the basis for this model.

Once the SDB was produced, TCarta included it as one of the many datasets used for interpolation of the remaining uncharted areas, creating the weighted in situ grid using the open-source Generic Mapping Tools (GMT). Individual data types were assigned weights based on source sensor/provenance and date of collection. All the data was then combined to a singular in situ grid at the DEM resolution, where coincident points from multiple sources were averaged based on their assigned weights. 

In lieu of using NOAA’s Continuously Updated Digital Elevation Model (CUDEM) software, TCarta elected to implement a custom python-driven pipeline for aggregating, weighting, and interfacing with the interpolation algorithm directly. While CUDEM invoked the same open-source interpolation software, the custom pipeline allowed for more finite control over data integration, coincident in situ weighting mechanisms, and interpolation parameters. To assess the vertical accuracy of the DEMs, a set of 3,000 randomly sampled points from each AOI’s non-SDB bathymetry sources were collected. The elevation of each point was compared to the coincident DEM elevation, deriving absolute error, and absolute percent error. From these point statistics, an overall assessment of vertical accuracy was established, with three key metrics: mean absolute error, root-mean square error, and mean absolute percent error. 

The results of the pilot project provided crucial information on the seafloor morphology of the three AOIs, providing indispensable spatial data to rural communities and was a proof of concept for integrating several datasets into a seamless topobathy product in Alaska. TCarta produced SDB totals of 13.54km² in Kachemak, 162.26km² in Teller, and 1.84km² in Point Hope. The 2m seamless DEM’s covered a total area of 1012.74km², 1160.69km², and 2292.28km² for Kachemak, Teller, and Point Hope, respectively. The data is available now to the public on NOAAs Digital Coast Data Access Viewer. As we look to the future of bathymetric charting, it is integral that we leverage older data with new technology to create products such as the seamless DEM. This will ensure that we do not sacrifice the work of our predecessors to temporal resolution constraints, but instead, leverage their insights to create higher resolution solutions. TCarta looks forward to working with NOAA’s Office of Coastal Management to continue discovering the uncharted in Alaska and use what we learned in this pilot project to provide essential coastal data using satellite derived bathymetry to partners worldwide.

References:

Riley, J. L., Wood, D., & Greenaway, S. (2016). The ellipsoid-referenced zoned datum: A poor man’s VDATUM for NOAA Hydrography in Alaska… https://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/learn/docs/ellipsoidally-referenced-surveys/riley-greenaway-wood-poor-mans-vdatum.pdf

NOAA Digital Coast Data Access Viewer:

https://coast.noaa.gov/dataviewer/#/lidar/search/

Direct Links to TCarta’s Data:

Point Hope:
https://coast.noaa.gov/dataviewer/#/lidar/search/-18649972.441117406,10462037.971209325,-18469988.712294783,10607981.740325386/details/10032
Kachemak Bay:
https://coast.noaa.gov/dataviewer/#/lidar/search/-16908558.589935552,8262154.8243729845,-16784017.179408647,8361828.709256855/details/10032Port Clarence/Teller:
https://coast.noaa.gov/dataviewer/#/lidar/search/-18620824.460551787,9609000.735546758,-18476511.351149373,9717643.234859653/details/10032

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Satellite Derived Water Quality Analysis

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By Graeme Timmeney

Water quality has a significant history of monitoring across various satellite systems. Since the advent of publicly available satellites with the launch of Landsat in 1972, researchers and scientists have developed various methods for the monitoring of water bodies across the globe. One such satellite, MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), an instrument mounted on NASA’s Terra and AQUA Satellite has been utilized in numerous studies related to water quality since its launch in 1999. Researchers have employed MODIS data to offer daily monitoring of water quality parameters such as chlorophyll-a concentration, turbidity, and suspended sediment concentration. The information on water quality derived from these satellites have been used to monitor harmful algal blooms and other water quality incidents throughout the globe. This information offers a historical snapshot in time of water quality at a very low resolution across very large areas.

For many commercial and scientific applications, water quality must be monitored daily, with a short lag time of image acquisition to water quality metrics. One such application, airborne bathymetric lidar, can be heavily impacted by water column conditions such as turbidity and algal blooms. Bathymetric lidar surveys utilize airborne mounted sensors with a green laser at 532 nanometers that can penetrate the water column and return to the sensor, creating an accurate picture of the seabed up to 30 meters deep. Poor conditions can greatly impact the cost of mapping large areas. 

Historical water quality analysis utilizing free satellite imagery can offer a historical snapshot of water quality across large areas with high levels of accuracy, assisting companies with the process of planning for bathymetric lidar surveys. These historical analyses, undoubtedly useful for planning, can only offer previous trends from years past. With the advent of anthropogenic induced climate change across the ocean, seen clearly in the upward trend of sea surface temperature, these historical studies only reflect the past, not the present

TCarta has found and implemented a solution that takes both historical analyses, daily imaging and cloud computing to implement a fast and effective water quality monitoring solution that utilizes Planet Labs daily imaging to assist in bathymetric lidar surveys. Historical surveys at a large spatial scale across an AOI are conducted to identify areas with frequent water quality problems that could affect a bathymetric lidar survey. These large scale historical analyses offer a comprehensive analysis, allowing for the selection of individual sites within the survey area that are most useful for more frequent and current monitoring. With potential sites selected, daily imagery is captured and analyzed for a number of relevant metrics within a matter of hours and posted directly to a water quality dashboard that clients can utilize to assess trends and current conditions at a site on the same day as image capture. This information allows for strategic flight planning based on both the success of previous flights in relation to water quality metrics as well as the current state of water quality over a given study area. This method is agile and effective at reducing the number of flights and overall project cost.

In a partnership with Dewberry, TCarta has implemented its daily water quality monitoring capabilities to assist in aerial bathymetric lidar planning across approximately 25,000 km2 of Florida’s coastline. A web-based dashboard was created to allow Dewberry to visualize water quality at 28 different sites for both historical and daily monitoring. This dashboard is updated within an hour of image capture with both the RGB imagery from Planet as well as 6 derived water quality metrics analyzing the potential for surface and sub-surface water quality conditions. Metrics analyze the potential for water column penetration as well as the presence of surface algae in the water. This dashboard has allowed Dewberry to increase the efficiency of flights across a massive area by informing the project managers of when and where is the best opportunity to fly on a given day. You can read more about Dewberry’s use of the dashboard here: Mapping Florida Waters

DEWBERRY ARTICLE

“Planning aerial acquisition missions, and particularly topo bathymetric missions in Florida, presents unique challenges. With the flat inland and coastal topography, even low-yield, inland rain events can result in large amounts of particulate runoff into the Gulf of Mexico. Combining the runoff with tannic components, such as those in the Suwannee River system in Big Bend, can result in poor water quality and unfavorable conditions for lidar bathymetry.

Figure 8: A daily water condition report for 16 October 2023 for 22 locations distributed in the Big Bend and Panhandle Regions, showing three (Kd492, Bb592, and Secchi Depth) metrics. Gray sample locations were clouded over on the date indicated and no data was generated; pink were below normal expected values; yellow, within normal expected values; green, better than normal expected values.

To help avoid collecting lidar during sub-optimum water clarity conditions, Dewberry has partnered with TCarta to provide satellite-derived bathymetry (SDB) for 22 selected sites dispersed throughout the regions. TCarta delivers the water clarity estimates daily based on several metrics, including the diffusion coefficient (Kd492), the backscatter coefficient (Bb492), and secchi disk depth (Figure 8) to help evaluate the water clarity and interpret current water conditions relative to historic norms. This methodology has helped Dewberry minimize non-productive flights, therefore increasing efficiency and decreasing environmental carbon dioxide loading.”

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Navigating the Depths: Charting and Preserving Coastal Assets

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In this blog, we’ll delve into the topic of coastal mapping and preservation. Our focus: why mapping and updating global coastlines matter significantly.

Understanding the Significance

The earth’s coastal regions are dynamic, ever-changing interfaces where land and water coalesce. These zones are teeming with life, offer abundant resources, and provide valuable avenues for trade and transportation. However, as climate change accelerates and sea levels rise, the need for precise coastal mapping becomes increasingly paramount.

Why Coastal Mapping Matters

Coastal mapping is not a challenge confined to a single nation. It’s a global endeavor that requires cooperation and data sharing among nations. Accurate maps of coastlines are indispensable for numerous sectors, such as marine navigation, disaster preparedness, resource management, and environmental conservation. The responsibility to map these vital areas is a shared one, calling for international collaboration.

Who Takes the Lead?

While many organizations around the world engage in coastal mapping and ocean mapping, TCarta is a key player in this arena. We are dedicated to providing nations with the tools and data they need to map and monitor their coastlines effectively.

Global Initiatives such as Seabed 2030 (the Nippon Foundation & GEBCO), Map the Gaps and Crowd Sourced Bathymetry Working Group (IHO) bring various stakeholders, technologies and resources together to map the world’s waters.  These organizations understand the critical nature of Ocean Mapping; as Map the Gaps states on their homepage, “We can’t protect what we don’t understand and we can’t understand what we don’t measure.” TCarta has engaged with Seabed 2030 and Map the Gaps to provide satellite derived national datasets where there is either no pre-existing data or data is long outdated.

The TCarta Approach

TCarta offers a suite of satellite-based services aimed at helping nations better understand, monitor, and manage their coastal zones. The approach involves a synergy of cutting-edge technology, scientific expertise, and global collaboration.

How TCarta Provides Value

1. Bathymetric Surveys: TCarta employs state-of-the-art technology, including multibeam sonar and satellite imaging, to map the ocean floor accurately. This data is crucial for safe navigation, resource exploration, and coastal ecosystem research.

2. Coastal Change Monitoring: With advanced monitoring systems, nations can track coastal erosion, sea-level rise, and other changes that impact their shorelines. Early detection is vital for safeguarding coastal communities and infrastructure. From baseline data sets to ongoing monitoring, satellite-based change detection provides essential information on marine assets.

3. Disaster Preparedness: TCarta provides real-time data and predictive modeling to help nations prepare for and respond to coastal disasters, such as tsunamis and storm surges.

4. Resource Management: Sustainable fisheries, aquaculture, and tourism rely on comprehensive coastal data. TCarta equips nations with the information needed to manage these resources responsibly.

Benefits for Nations

Coastal mapping is not an abstract pursuit; it has tangible benefits for nations around the world:

– Economic Growth: Accurate coastal maps facilitate maritime trade, tourism, and resource utilization, driving economic development.

– Environmental Preservation: Coastal mapping aids in the conservation of delicate ecosystems, including coral reefs and wetlands.

– National Security: Precise maps are vital for safeguarding maritime borders and protecting against security threats.

– Climate Resilience: In an era of climate change, coastal mapping is essential for understanding and mitigating the impacts of rising sea levels and extreme weather events.

Partners in Progress

Collaboration is at the heart of effective coastal mapping. TCarta partners with governments, research institutions, and international organizations to ensure that nations have access to the data and tools needed to navigate these challenges. Such partners include: the National Land Agency of Jamaica, the Marine Institute of University of Newfoundland, University of Southern Mississippi, the Mexican Navy and the Maldives Land Authority. Each partnership focuses on utilizing existing data resources, technology integrations, increasing capabilities and capacity for coastal surveying, and accomplishing institutional or national surveying milestones. 

Conclusion

In an era where our coasts are under constant pressure from natural and human-induced changes, the importance of coastal mapping cannot be overstated. It is a responsibility that transcends borders and unites nations in a common cause: safeguarding our coastal heritage for generations to come. TCarta is here to partner with your nation and/or entity on this vital journey, ensuring that your coastal assets are quantified, monitored, and therefore better protected and your opportunities maximized. Together, we can map the way to a safer, more sustainable future for coastal regions worldwide.

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Hydrospatial Spotlight: Felicia Nurindrawati

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Regardless of the topic–kpop, Machine Learning, a new movie, etc–a conversation with Felicia Nurindrawati, TCarta’s Machine Learning Engineer, will include questions, asking questions, answering questions and asking more questions. Ever since I began working with Felicia more than 2 years ago, I have enjoyed and benefited from her innate curiosity.

In using machine learning to solve problems at TCarta, Felicia naturally takes an inquisitive stance, gravitating towards posing questions to better understand the problem and formulating tests as part of her process. Another element of Felicia’s talent that she does not reveal in her Q&A is that she is a highly visual individual, who deploys diagrams to make sense of her work for herself and others every day.

I hope you’ll read on through the answers below, so you can appreciate the fun, light-hearted and innovative aspects of Felicia’s personality:

Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A: I grew up watching Ultraman. It’s about a giant alien saving the earth from alien invaders. The main character said, “Why are humans so adamant in going up to space when they barely know what’s down there beneath the earth?” That somehow made me want to be some sort of earth scientist.

Q: How do you describe your professional role to people who don’t know anything about it?

A: I get data and do fancy machine learning stuff to get more data.

Q: Tell me something about how you came to work at TCarta?

A: I graduated right in the beginning of the pandemic and found a job opening from LinkedIn for a machine learning engineer position, and is specifically computer-vision related. I wasn’t too confident because I didn’t know much about bathymetry, but my graduate thesis was pretty much aligned with the job requirements and it sounded cool. 

Q: What do you love about your work?

A: I love how I have the freedom and flexibility to try different innovations for solving technical problems!

Q: What software or tool makes the most difference in your day-to-day assignments?

A: ArcGIS PRO for now

Q: What industry or subject-matter resource or publication do you recommend?

A: I subscribe to medium.com newsletter to get the latest info for various technical topics of interest. Sometimes I get inspiration for new developments from it!

Q: What’s your current favorite hobby / past-time?

A: Listening to kpop, and soccer documentaries, drawing digital art

Q: What country or region do you hope to explore next in travel?

A: Florida

Q: What is one of the coolest things you’ve seen or visualized in your work at TCarta?

A: ICESat-2 bathymetry…it’s beautiful when you use the right symbology!

Q: Who inspires you or is a professional role model of yours?

A: BTS. I look at them everyday before going to work for a boost of energy!

Q: What is your favorite item in your office desk?

A: The cute mug coaster that I drew by myself. I want to make another one next time!

Previous Hydrospatial Spotlight: Audrey Rager

Next Hydrospatial Spotlight: Corey Goodrich

Hydrospatial Spotlight: Michaela Barnes

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Michaela Barnes is the newest member of TCarta’s hydrospatial team. She joined us earlier this month with a nearly two-week stint in the Denver office, though she will typically be joining us remotely from her home in St. John’s. Michaela jumped fully into production in her first days here, demonstrating her experience and background in data production, QAQC, and team management. Working on two project deadlines in her first weeks at TCarta was an ideal opportunity for TCarta to understand Michaela’s skills and for her to learn about the Company.

As we move towards Michaela’s second month at TCarta, she will be building her remote sensing muscles with Satellite Derived Bathymetry production, post-processing, and data analysis methods and tools. And, TCarta will certainly continue to integrate and learn from Michaela’s past experience, as well! I invite you to learn more about Michaela from her responses to our Staff Q&A:

Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A: A teacher.

Q: How do you describe your professional role to people who don’t know anything about it?

A: I map the ocean floor using satellite images.

Q: Tell me something about how you came to work at TCarta?

A: After working on boats for 4 years, I decided to move into the space-based approach of ocean mapping.

Q: How did you become interested in this field? 

A: I became interested in ocean technology by competing in the MATE ROV competition in secondary school.

Q: What do you love about your work?

A: I love peeling back the layer of ocean to view what’s hiding underneath. It’s incredible to think about the mountain ranges, valleys, and other features that are never seen by human eyes!

Q: What industry or subject-matter resource or publication do you recommend?

A: The Journal of Ocean Technology

Q: What’s your current favorite hobby / past-time?

A: Spin Class!

Q: What country or region do you hope to explore next in travel?

A: Alaska

Q: Who inspires you or is a professional role model of yours?

A: Maria Tharp

Previous Hydrospatialist Spotlight: Chris Ilori

Next Hydrospatialist Spotlight: Audrey Rager

Hydrospatial Spotlight: Dr. Chris Ilori

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Hydrospatial Spotlight shines on Dr. Christopher Ilori, Senior Geospatial Scientist, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

Ilori mixes passion for remote sensing with humor and enthusiasm for a good challenge!

Chris Ilori, PhD is a subject matter expert in atmospheric correction and satellite derived bathymetry (SDB) as you can see by a quick glimpse at his Google scholar page. As he has dedicated so much of his professional life to the research of satellite-based marine remote sensing and since Chris has a very sunny personality, he often tells jokes about SDB. For example, recently he told a group of us that if a remote sensing analyst spent 100 years producing SDB, 90 of those years would be spent on Atmospheric Correction. –This is now a common line on our team!

Since Chris has been with TCarta, he has collaborated with our staff to develop more robust radiative transfer methods for SDB and other machine learning approaches, such as the Random Forest method.  He typically contributes his expertise to more challenging regions or images and reliably brings a very positive attitude to these challenges. Chris has also facilitated internal capacity building on atmospheric correction, other imagery processing techniques, SDB and Marine remote sensing in general…always with a little extra joie de vivire (Chris speaks french, too!).  

I invite you to learn more about Chris from his responses to our Staff Q&A:

Q: How do you describe your professional role to people who don’t know anything about it?

A: I tell people I use satellite data to analyse and reveal changes about our (physical) environment.

Q: Tell me something about how you came to work at TCarta?

A: My PhD advisor told me about TCarta and recommended me to the company. In 2018, I was hired by TCarta to come and work on physics-based satellite derived bathymetry, which happened to be my primary research focus in graduate school.

Q: What do you love about your work?

A: I love the idea of using models to derive stunning images/maps of water depth estimates from satellite imagery.

Q: What software or tool makes the most difference in your day-to-day assignments?

A: Python

Q: What industry or subject-matter resource or publication do you recommend?

A: Intercomparison of shallow water bathymetry, hydro-optics, and benthos mapping techniques in Australian and Caribbean coastal environments. Dekker et al 2012.

Q: What is the most relevant real-world application of TCarta’s and/or your work?

A: Production of bathymetry maps for intelligence and safety navigation in nearshore waters.

Q: What’s your current favorite hobby / past-time?

A: Piano playing.

Q: What country or region do you hope to explore next in travel?

A: Japan

Q: What is one of the coolest things you’ve seen or visualized in your work at TCarta?

A: Maps of water depth and coral reefs.

Q: Who inspires you or is a professional role model of yours?

A: Anders Knudby, PhD (Partner in TCarta Canada)

Previous Hydrospatialist Spotlight: Ross Smith

Next Hydrospatialist Spotlight: Michaela Barnes

Hydrospatial Spotlight: Ross Smith

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Ross Smith’s “weapon of choice” is Python for processing massive volumes of geospatial data,

Interviewing and hiring Ross Smith was one of the first things I did after I joined TCarta in the spring of 2017. In the first weeks of working in the same office, I grew very fond of Ross’ sound effects while working. And still now, at least daily, there will be an intriguing “Aha” or “Ahhhhh” or “Hmm”–the kinds of noises that signal discovery or curiosity. On top of taking up hard Geospatial or Remote Sensing problems with enthusiasm and teaching himself many solutions, Ross is someone that teammates often turn to for support.

TCarta ran a monthly award in 2021, called the “Wookie Award,” in honor of Karl Lalonde, who was a very important part of TCarta until he passed away in 2020. Almost every single month, Ross received at least one nomination for the award, because his peers found his support and technical insight so valuable. 

It has been a pleasure to get to know Ross more, as he and I are now halfway through our 6th year at TCarta. I hope you get a chance to meet him at a conference one day, or to watch his GISCafe Interview, or learn more about him from his responses to our Staff Q&A:

Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A: I had absolutely no idea. Maybe a goat farmer.

Q: How do you describe your professional role to people who don’t know anything about it?

A: I usually say that I map the seafloor from space- sometimes I leave it as simple as “I make maps.”

Q: Tell me something about how you came to work at TCarta?

A: I went to my interview with the collar of my suit-jacket “popped”. I didn’t notice until I got home, and was mortified until I learned later it was taken to be some sort of bold interview power move — ha!

Q: What do you love about your work?

A: Every day I learn something new, get to tackle a challenge, and work with some brilliant minds to achieve great things!

Q: What software or tool makes the most difference in your day-to-day assignments?

A: My weapon of choice is Python– we rely on it for processing massive volumes of data, with some fairly innovative techniques to increase throughput. I am constantly utilizing Esri’s ArcGIS Pro, as well. 

Q: What industry or subject-matter resource or publication do you recommend?

A: READ. THE. DOCUMENTATION. For any tool, software, python library, etc. You would be surprised how many issues are already documented, if you know where to look and take the time to do so.

Q: What is the most relevant real-world application of TCarta’s and/or your work?

A: I believe that our contributions to Seabed 2030 are the most impactful, though I do appreciate the value of the data we have produced for hydrographic offices as well.

Q: What’s your current favorite hobby / past-time?

A: Music!

Q: What country or region do you hope to explore next in travel?

A: I would love to return to Iceland, or visit Norway.

Q: What is one of the coolest things you’ve seen or visualized in your work at TCarta?

A: The first time we extracted and visualized bathymetry from the ICESat-2 ATLAS sensor back in late 2018 / early 2019, as a part of the Early Adopter program. When we were able to resolve depths down to 40m after only a couple months of work, I knew we were onto something!

Q: Who inspires you or is a professional role model of yours?

A: My late co-worker Karl Lalonde provided me with an immense amount of guidance towards becoming a far better geospatial developer and scientist.

Previous Hydrospatialist Spotlight: Natalie Treadwell

Next Hydrospatialist Spotlight: Chris Ilori

Hydrospatial Spotlight: Carol Fisher, TCarta Caribe

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Hydrospatial Spotlight shines on Carol Fisher, TCarta Caribe Partner & MACHC Regional Consultant (#9 in a series of 14)

Fisher envisions capacity building for Caribbean colleagues

Carol Fisher met Kyle Goodrich at a Meso American-Caribbean Sea Hydrographic Commission (MACHC) meeting in 2018 in the Dominican Republic (https://www.iho-machc.org/). After watching his presentation on Satellite Derived Bathymetry (SDB), Carol approached TCarta about the role of SDB technology in the Caribbean region. As a member of the hydrographic team at the National Land Agency in Jamaica, Carol knew firsthand the challenges faced by those charged with keeping up-to-date surveys of their island nation’s waters. Carol often speaks of the game-changing nature of SDB, and she has been pivotal in organizing capacity building efforts in the MACHC region.

Carol wants to be part of getting SDB in the hands of Caribbean hydrographers, because she knows that the capacity to produce SDB will enable her contemporaries to meet their surveying requirements more fully and more efficiently; she also wants to see SDB used to help address environmental concerns in the region, which is a passion and professional goal of hers.

Learn more about Carol’s passion for her work by reading her responses to the Staff Q & A:

Q: How do you describe your professional role to people who don’t know anything about it?

A: I tell them I’m a Marine Detective!

Q: What do you love about your work?

A: Using science to provide accurate and reliable data in the marine environment to our clients

Q: What industry or subject-matter resource or publication do you recommend?

A: Hydro International

Q: What is the most relevant real-world application of TCarta’s and/or your work?

A: Our data being used for marine protection and conservation.

Q: What’s your current favorite hobby / past-time?

A: Listening to inspirational podcast and exercise

Q: What country or region do you hope to explore next in travel?

A: I want to travel to Africa and Europe.

Previous Hydrospatial Spotlight: Bindi Dave

Next Hydrospatial Spotlight: Alec Biles

Hydrospatial Spotlight: Natalie Treadwell

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Natalie joined TCarta’s team this spring as a part-time member of the NOAA SBIR Phase II Grant program focusing on Satellite-based solutions for Alaska and the Arctic. Her passion for her home state of Alaska and for GIS, mapping and Esri tools are a wonderful match for TCarta’s mission, vision and strategic plan and for the environmental challenges at play in these regions and around the world. Now a full-time satellite derived bathymetrist for TCarta with a specialization in Alaska, Natalie represented TCarta just last month at the 2022 Alaska Coastal and Ocean Mapping Summit.

Learn more about Natalie from her responses to our Staff Q&A:

Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A: A marine biologist focused in bioluminescence!

Q: How do you describe your professional role to people who don’t know anything about it?

A: TCarta is a mapping company that focuses on nearshore coastal waters using remote sensing techniques. Most days I am working on Satellite Derived Bathymetry, which is a process where you can determine the depths of the seafloor along the coastline using satellite LiDAR and Imagery. If they are at all curious, I then explain by saying – think about the pixels in an image – if we know the depth in red pixels is five meters and the depths in the green pixels is seven, then we can assume that the depth in the yellow pixels is 6 meters. If they are not familiar with LiDAR and it’s a friendly interaction, I introduce it as a giant space cat with laser eyes that can tell the height of things by bouncing the lasers off of the earth! 

Q: Tell me something about how you came to work at TCarta?

A: I watched a presentation that a former TCartan gave at an Esri conference when I was doing research for my thesis. I remember sharing with a few people close to me that TCarta is doing something really cool and I should try to work with them after I finished school! 

Q: What do you love about your work?

A: It feels like I get to hop around the world every day! I am discovering the world’s oceans every day – and am often the first person to conduct SDB in those regions! I am a modern day explorer – discovering old places with new technology!

Q: What software or tool makes the most difference in your day-to-day assignments?

A: The Trident Tools are my bread and butter – but if I had to pick a favorite script – it would be the irregular composite script that can combine several images with irregular overlap. It’s always a joy seeing how the input images blend together and I enjoy refining the composites to find the best image for SDB! 

Q: What industry or subject-matter resource or publication do you recommend?

A: The remote sensing journal is top notch!

Q: What is the most relevant real-world application of TCarta’s and/or your work?

A: I feel that our work becomes as ‘real-world’ as it gets when clients like Seabed 2030 use the data we produced in the Seychelles and Saya De Malha for navigation and for planning their charting efforts.

Q: What’s your current favorite hobby / past-time?

A: Backcountry skiing! 

Q: What country or region do you hope to explore next in travel?

A: I would like to spend more time exploring Iceland and Greenland!

Q: What is one of the coolest things you’ve seen or visualized in your work at TCarta?

A: Using the pure file magic software (https://pfmabe.software/), it’s really amazing to see our seafloor models in a 3D point cloud. 

Q: Who inspires you or is a professional role model of yours?

A: My favorite contemporary cartographer is John Nelson, an ESRI basemap engineer who spends his free time making artistic maps and youtube tutorials of creative things that can be done with GIS.  I also am inspired by Kate Berg, a GIS officer for the State of Michigan who runs Pokateo_ a GIS based meme account. In the SDB world, I have looked up to Chris Ilori since I began my research into SDB and I find it so cool that we are co-workers now!

Before joining TCarta, Natalie was Esri Innovation Program’s 2022 Student of the Year! We are fortunate to have Natalie join our team every day from Alaska, bringing her passion for geospatial, hydrospatial and remote sensing to modern-day environmental issues.

Other recent resources Natalie has shared with TCarta’s team:

Esri StoryMap Documentation of Typhoon Merbok created by the Alaska Geospatial Office

Esri StoryMap on Seascape: A regional mapping campaign in support of the National Strategy for Mapping, Exploring, and Characterizing the U.S. EEZ

Alaska Coastal Mapping Strategy

Previous Hydrospatialist Spotlight: Graeme Timmeney

Next Hydrospatialist Spotlight: Ross Smith

Hydrospatial Spotlight: Graeme Timmeney

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Hydrospatialist Spotlight shines on Graeme Timmeney, Satellite Derived Bathymetrist and Sargassum Enthusiast

Many people refer to this time of year as the “Season of Light.” I know I cherish the festive lights on houses and streets and am drawn to things with a little extra dose of humanity or heart to get me through the colder, darker days of the winter season. And, every day–rain or shine–I am buoyed by my interactions with TCarta’s diverse, talented, and fun-loving team, so I want to share that light with you over the coming weeks.

TCarta’s team numbers 14 right now, spread west to east from Anchorage, to Vancouver, the main office in Denver, Mascouche, Canada, Kingston, Jamaica, and most recently to St.Johns, Newfoundland. The first hydrospatialist spotlight shines on Graeme Timmeney, Satellite Derived Bathymetrist, and one of the newest additions to TCarta’s remote sensing team.

Graeme’s going to tell you about himself, via a series of Q & A:

Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A: Jacques Cousteau

Q: How do you describe your professional role to people who don’t know anything about it?

A: I use satellites to study underwater habitats in coastal areas.

Q: Tell me something about how you came to work at TCarta.

A: I found TCarta after finishing my thesis research in 2020.

Q: What do you love about your work?

A: Visualizing the ocean from a desk in Denver.

Q: What software or tool makes the most difference in your day-to-day assignments?

A: ArcPro

Q: What industry or subject-matter resource or publication do you recommend?

A: The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, Wang et al (2019)

Q: What is the most relevant real-world application of TCarta’s and/or your work?

A: Developing a better understanding of coastal areas across the globe that have not been mapped or studied in hundreds of years.

Q: What’s your current favorite hobby / past-time?

A: Skiing, live music

Q: What country or region do you hope to explore next in travel?

A: Basque Region of Spain

Q: What is one of the coolest things you’ve seen or visualized in your work at TCarta?

A: Visualizations of coral reef heads in varying states of decay in seafloor classification.

Q: Who inspires you or is a professional role model of yours?

A: My dad!

TCarta is fortunate to have Graeme join our Remote Sensing team here in Denver! Thanks, Graeme, for telling us a bit about yourself and your work. Next up in the Hydrospatialist Spotlight: Natalie Treadwell, Satellite Derived Bathymetrist from Anchorage, Alaska!

Blog author: Corey Goodrich, Managing Partner, TCarta

Next Hydrospatialist Spotlight: Natalie Treadwell

Hydrospatial Spotlight: Dr. Bindi Dave

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Senior Remote Sensing Scientist, Mascouche, Canada

Dr. Dave’s love for a good challenge brings advancements in SAR to TCarta (#8 in a series of 14)

A fairly new member of TCarta, Bindi brings her background in remote sensing, image processing and GIS to her work with SAR and Satellite imagery and various GIS workflows. In addition to years of expertise, Bindi brings passion for problem solving and a deep drive to learn new things. From distant Mascouche, Bindi lends focus and thoughtfulness to meetings and collaboration.

Learn more about Bindi’s passion for her work by reading her responses to the Staff Q & A:

Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A: As a kid I was fascinated by becoming a chef and health nutritionist.

Q: How do you describe your professional role to people who don’t know anything about it?

A: Then & very much now, I tell people that “the cameras & filters we use to click our pictures and make us look our best in daily lives are upgraded a bit more scientifically, instead of mobile phones as platforms-satellites carry these cameras and picture all parts of the earth (land, water, air) and space too, allowing to see, study and analyze it (for some specific problem solving).

Q: What do you love about your work?

A: Something challenging and new everyday to feed my mind and soul (exploring the unexplored in the hydrology realm);Trust + empowerment from leaders & peers  

Q: What software or tool makes the most difference in your day-to-day assignments?

A: Definitely Monday.com for organization, ENVI+Sarscape for image processing (specially SAR) & undoubtedly Arcpro for visualization.

Q: What industry or subject-matter resource or publication do you recommend?

A: I highly recommend IEEE-GRSS publications for various new research in Geosciences and thematic applications, including hydrology.

Q: What is the most relevant real-world application of TCarta’s and/or your work?

A: SDB fascinates me, and how important it is to 

safe navigation and infrastructure development in the Marine environment.

Q: What’s your current favorite hobby / past-time?

A: Literally gazing away as the snow falls and blankets the bare trees and ground, along with sipping a hot cup of indian chai…. 

Q: What country or region do you hope to explore next in travel?

A: Definitely Caribbean…..

Q: What is one of the coolest things you’ve seen or visualized in your work at TCarta?

A: At this point, definitely the inter-tidal differences between the high and low tide levels, and signatures of Sargassum floats & bioslicks in a SAR image. Super exciting…

Previous Hydrospatial Spotlight: Felicia Nurindrawati

Next Hydrospatial Spotlight: Carol Fisher

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TCarta Marine LLC

1015 Federal Boulevard
Denver, CO 80204, USA

+1 (303) 284-6144

TCarta Caribe LLC

26 Haining Road
New Kingston, Jamaica

+1 (876) 817-8567

TCarta Canada Services Ltd.

1771 Robson Street - 1508
Vancouver, BC, V6G 3B7 CA