GEOMAR research team develops new workflow for image analysis.
More and more data and images are generated during ocean research. In order to be able to evaluate the image data scientifically, automated procedures are necessary. Together with GEOMAR data management, researchers at GEOMAR have now developed a standardized workflow for sustainable marine image analysis for the first time and recently published it in the international journal Scientific Data. Dr. Timm Schoening, lead author, will present these and other methods of digitisation in marine research at the Digital Week in Kiel.
The evaluation of very large amounts of data is becoming increasingly relevant in ocean research. Diving robots or autonomous underwater vehicles, which carry out measurements independently in the deep sea, can now record large quantities of high-resolution images. To evaluate these images scientifically in a sustainable manner, a number of prerequisites have to be fulfilled in data acquisition, curation and data management. "Over the past three years, we have developed a standardized workflow that makes it possible to scientifically evaluate large amounts of image data systematically and sustainably," explains Dr. Timm Schoening from the "Deep Sea Monitoring" working group headed by Prof. Dr. Jens Greinert at GEOMAR. The background to this was the project JPIOceans "Mining Impact". The ABYSS autonomous underwater vehicle was equipped with a new digital camera system to study the ecosystem around manganese nodules in the Pacific Ocean. With the data collected in this way, the workflow was designed and tested for the first time. The results have now been published in the international journal Scientific Data.
Continue reading at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
Image via Timm Schoening, GEOMAR
