CONTACT: Patricia Viets FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Troy Holcombe 11/21/96
Oceanographers have compiled a new map that more clearly depicts previously known physical features of the lakefloor of Lake Michigan and reveals a number of features seen for the first time. The poster and accompanying data base on CD-ROM are now available to the public, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today.
More than 600,000 high-quality depth measurements, or soundings, collected over a 120-year period were used in making the new map. The data, collected by NOAA's National Ocean Service/Coast Survey and the Army Corps of Engineers, were originally collected for nautical charting, but fully assembled, they constitute the best data set available for compiling bathymetry, or lakefloor topography.
Both the poster and the CD-ROM picture files may be viewed in 3-D using Chromadepth (tm) high-definition glasses, which will be distributed with the poster. The 3-D effect is particularly enhanced in custom plotter versions of the poster which are plotted using high-intensity color inks.
The oceanographers involved with the project are from NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service/National Geophysical Data Center; NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research/Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory; and the University of Colorado's and NOAA's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES).
New bathymetry for the four international Great Lakes is being prepared in a cooperative effort between NOAA and the Canadian Hydrographic Service. The University of Minnesota Large Lakes Observatory is also cooperating in the preparation of new bathymetry for Lake Superior.
For more information and sample imagery, visit NGDC's Lake Michigan web page at: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/announcements/announce_lakemich.html
To order the color poster or the CD-ROM, contact Robin Warnken, National Geophysical Data Center, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303, telephone 303-497-6338, fax 303-497-6513, (email rwarnken@ngdc.noaa.gov). The poster is $20.00 and the CD-ROM is $50.00.
###NOTE: Information about NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center can be found on the Internet at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov.
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