Abstract:
This annotated dataset comprises locational data of beluga whales along the eastern shore of the Yugor Penisula and in the inner part of Baydaratskaya Bay in the southern Kara Sea (Russia) as detected from Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery on July 4th and 9th, 2016. Images were manually scanned and whales detected through the use of grids. Additional metadata includes information on image type and model, and whale distinctive characteristics (e.g., fluke or blow). This work supports the 'training' of machine learning algorithms for automatic detection of whales from satellite imagery.
This study was possible thanks to imagery support from MAXAR Technologies/Digital Globe Foundation for the VHR images and core funding from British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, as part of the 'Wildlife from Space' project.
Keywords:
Beluga, Delphinapterus leucas, Foraging ground, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Very High Resolution
Panigada, V., Cubaynes, H.C., & Fretwell, P.T. (2024). Annotated dataset of beluga whales detected in Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery of the southern Kara Sea (Russia) in July 2016. (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/ae34b490-4838-4740-a78e-924d23dc5540
| Access Constraints: | There are no access constraints on this dataset. |
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| Use Constraints: | This data is governed by the NERC data policy http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/data/policy/ and supplied under Open Government Licence v.3 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/. |
| Creation Date: | 2024-03-26 |
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| Dataset Progress: | Complete |
| Dataset Language: | English |
| ISO Topic Categories: |
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| Parameters: |
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| Personnel: | |
| Name | Ms Viola Panigada |
| Role(s) | Metadata Author |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Hannah C Cubaynes |
| Role(s) | Investigator, Technical Contact |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Peter T Fretwell |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Parent Dataset: | N/A |
| Reference: | Fretwell, P. T., Cubaynes, H. C., & Shpak, O. V. (2023). Satellite image survey of beluga whales in the southern Kara Sea. Marine Mammal Science, 39(4), 1204-1214. https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.13044 Cubaynes, H. C., Clarke, P. J., Goetz, K. T., Aldrich, T., Fretwell, P. T., Leonard, K. E., & Khan, C. B. (2023). Annotating very high-resolution satellite imagery: A whale case study. In MethodsX (Vol. 10, p. 102040). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2023.102040 |
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| Quality: | The satellite images were pansharpened using the ESRI pansharpening algorithm. The attribute table includes fields to: specify the satellite image metadata; describe environmental conditions; describe the observed animal. Please refer to the README associated with the data for details. |
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| Lineage: | Beluga whales were manually detected by scanning VHR satellite imagery obtained from the Maxar satellites WorldView-2 and -3. Single points were placed on the whales, and the attribute table was filled out to contain information on the certainty level (i.e. "definite", "probable", "possible") derived from the classification score assessed based on various criteria (i.e. body length, body width, body shape, body colour, fluke print, blow, contour, wake, after-breach, defecation, other disturbance, fluke, flipper, head callosities and mud trail), following Cubaynes et al. 2023. For additional details on attribute table definitions, please refer to the README affiliated with the shapefile data. For each annotated whale, there is information about the imagery analysed: the location, latitude and longitude (in decimal degrees and recorded using the same geographic coordinate system and projection as the satellite imagery), imagery ID, imagery date, type of satellite, spatial resolution, number of multispectral bands, product level and type (e.g., Standard2A). The 4th of July dataset is in the projection WGS 1984 UTM 41N and 9th of July dataset in WGS 1984 UTM 42N. | |
| Temporal Coverage: | |
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| Start Date | 2016-07-04 |
| End Date | 2016-07-04 |
| Start Date | 2016-07-09 |
| End Date | 2016-07-09 |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | 69 |
| Northernmost | 70 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | 63 |
| Easternmost | 65 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | 68 |
| Northernmost | 69 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | 68 |
| Easternmost | 69 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Data Resolution: | |
| Latitude Resolution | N/A |
| Longitude Resolution | N/A |
| Horizontal Resolution Range | N/A |
| Vertical Resolution | 30cm |
| Vertical Resolution Range | N/A |
| Temporal Resolution | N/A |
| Temporal Resolution Range | N/A |
| Latitude Resolution | N/A |
| Longitude Resolution | N/A |
| Horizontal Resolution Range | N/A |
| Vertical Resolution | 50cm |
| Vertical Resolution Range | N/A |
| Temporal Resolution | N/A |
| Temporal Resolution Range | N/A |
| Location: | |
| Location | Russia |
| Detailed Location | Northern Yugor Peninsula |
| Location | Russia |
| Detailed Location | Baydaratskaya Bay |
| Data Storage: | 2 shapefiles and associated file extensions and a README; approximate size 1.10 MB total: - belugas_4July_YugorPeninsula.shp gives the annotated locational data of beluga whales along the eastern shore of the Yugor Penisula as detected from Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery on July 4th, 2016. - belugas_9July_BaydaratskayaBay.shp gives the annotated locational data of beluga whales in the inner part of Baydaratskaya Bay in the southern Kara Sea (Russia) as detected from Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery on July 9th, 2016. - README_VHR_whale_imagery.txt gives information for each field used as annotation in the shapefile data. |
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