Data and Products

Data Access

• Download INFOMAR Survey Data (IWDDS)
• INFOMAR Public Webmapping Viewer
• Image Webmapping Viewer
• Metadata - An online catalogue of our data holdings

The majority of data acquired by INFOMAR is available digitally via the following sites.

INFOMAR Survey Data Download

Open Download Site

The Interactive Web Data Delivery System (IWDDS), was developed by Intrepid Geophysics of Australia and is hosted by the GSI. It allows users to browse a catalogue of all the available data and to then pull
their own raw data selections onto their own machines. Data such as bathymetry and backscatter grids, ascii files, fledermaus scenes, google .kmzs and leg reports for all INSS and INFOMAR surveys can be downloaded.

The site contains a very basic map covering the entire Irish land and sea area. A user can choose their area of interest by coordinate map extent, or by map number if they already know the area well, or by
drawing a map-extent box on the map.

If a user is unsure with regards to their area of interest they may prefer to use the INFOMAR webmapping viewer to locate the data. The viewer allows the user to choose by survey leg for example.

When a user is happy with their selected area, they then proceed to the download page. The user then selects a data type (vector, gridded, report, fledermaus, google), a region (onshore or offshore) and a theme (bathymetry, backscatter, bedrock etc).

Depending on the user’s chosen criteria and area of interest, the system then returns a listing of all of the data it contains of that type within that area. The user can browse through and preview this listing.

After making selections for parts or all of the data listed, a user submits their data request. The request gets queued for action by the system. When the request has been acted upon and completed by the system, the IWDDS then emails the user who made the request, giving them a secure FTP link to download the data.

Additional features such as end user map creation on the fly and end user on the fly gridding of the XYZ datasets is also available.

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INFOMAR Public Webmapping Viewer

Open INFOMAR Public Webmapping Viewer

The INFOMAR webmapping viewer allows you to view the INFOMAR and INSS (Irish National Seabed Survey) data. This includes tracklines, tide, sound velocity profile and grab sample data. 

You can zoom to areas by coordinate input, by layer (e.g. Survey 2007) and by attribute (e.g. Survey 2007 and Survey Name CE_0701 ). The data can be selected in a number of ways e.g. point, polygon, attribute etc. Data can be queried for information. Some data layers may be downloaded in excel, KML and shapefile formats.

The webmapping viewer provide the user with enhanced data visualisation and query tools in comparison to the data download site. Obviously the better the visualisation the better informed the user will be (e.g. density of data points in an area; location of tracklines within an overall survey polygon etc).

A link is provided to our interactive web data download site. The link allows the user to select their area of interest using the webmapping viewer and it then bypasses the IWDDS site’s home page and brings the user directly to the download page.

A WMS (Web Map Service) link is also provided. You may use this link to view the same data displayed in this viewer in a variety of Open Source Viewers.

You can also open this WMS in ArcGIS. Open ArcCatalog. Go to GIS Servers. Add WMS Server. Paste in the link.

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Image Webmapping Viewer

Open Image Webmapping Viewer

The INFOMAR image webmapping viewer has been designed to display the large raster datasets. This includes bathymetry (water depth) and seabed classification grids, backscatter and shaded relief charts.

Bathymetry grids are provided at 500 - 250m resolution and also 3 - 50m resolution for shallower areas.

The seabed classification divides the seabed into different sediments types. The resolution varies between 5 - 20m resolution.

The backscatter images can be used to interpret the composition of the seafloor. High backscatter is shown as dark areas and represents rock outcrops and the soft sediments are lighter grey areas. The resolution varies between 2 - 20m resolution.

The shaded relief images are created by artificially placing a sun at an angle to the terrain model created from the XYZ values to give light and shade to the terrain and are excellent for showing the texture and general composition be it sediment or rock or the seafloor. The resolution varies between 2 - 100m resolution.

Vector datasets are also available including survey areas, tracklines and grab sample data. 

A WMS (Web Map Service) link is also provided. You may use this link to view the same data displayed in this viewer in a variety of Open Source Viewers.

You can also open this WMS in ArcGIS. Open ArcCatalog. Go to GIS Servers. Add WMS Server. Paste in the link.

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Metadata

Open Metadata Site

An online catalogue of our data holdings.

Metadata on the various data types collected by INFOMAR as well as metadata on all other datasets held by the Marine Institute and the GSI. Among the wide range of information databases available through ISDE are seabed mapping, ocean temperature and current, tidal information, groundwater and geological information, weather information from the coastal data buoys, locations of underwater heritage sites, Special Areas of Conservation, underwater wreck sites, fishing and fish spawning grounds.

If you search for INFOMAR you will find all of our metadata.

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