Interactive 3D Visualization of the Seafloor

Very little of the seafloor is mapped and imaged to the extent needed to assess and monitor the changing ocean environment. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute develops systems to conduct seafloor surveys producing 1-cm-lateral resolution products over hundreds of square meter areas. The same sites can be revisited to understand physical, chemical, geological, and biological changes. Products from the surveys are published using traditional methods and data are submitted to national data archives such as the MGDS [1]. Because of the charismatic nature of some of our surveys a more engaging experience for the general public's access to data is desired. For this we envision using glTF, OGC 3D Tiles, and X3D to develop open-source workflows in our data processing system.