Explore bathymetric data

The Explore Bathymetry tool allows you to define filters for bathymetric data in a BIS geodatabase. By filtering based on metadata, you can create a data subset that fits your analysis needs. Before you can use the Explore Bathymetry tool, you must create a Bathymetric Information System (BIS) and add data to it using either the Add Data To BIS or Add Point Cloud To BIS tool. Both tools are available in the Bathymetry toolbox, which can be found in the ArcGIS Bathymetry data installer and added to ArcGIS Pro.

Access the Explore Bathymetry tool from the Explore group on the Bathymetry ribbon. (You must add either the BisCatalog or the BisBDI from the BIS to the active map to view the Bathymetry tab in ArcGIS Pro.) You can customize the metadata filters used in the Explore Bathymetry pane and use them to filter data in a BIS. The filters available in the Explore Bathymetry pane are based on the metadata fields of the BIS schema. The Explore Bathymetry pane also allows you to filter by extent and isolate data in an area of interest. You can save and use filter files to analyze bathymetric data in ArcGIS Pro. You can also use the saved filter files in the Bathymetry web app.

Default metadata fields

You can filter bathymetric data based on the metadata fields of the BIS you are working with. These fields are based on the BIS schema used to create the BIS. The metadata fields available in the Explore Bathymetry pane are defined by the Fields To Display cell in the BisDetails table. By default, the BisCatalog contains the following fields:

• Item name—The name of the dataset. You can filter by the full name of an item or by partial name to include records that contain the provided text, such as region number, ID, or collection period.
• Data type—The file type of the raster or vector data. You can filter by the following data types:
  • ASCII Grid
  • BAG
  • Esri Grid
  • Floating Point Grid
  • GDB Raster
  • GeoTiff (Elevation)
  • GeoTiff (RGB)
  • HDF5
  • Line
  • Mosaic Dataset
  • MRF
  • Multipoint
  • Other
  • Point
  • Point Cloud (LAS)
  • Point Cloud (LASD)
  • Polygon
  • Shapefile
• Percent Coverage—The percentage of pixels containing real values (nonnull data) compared to the BisBDI extent.
• BIS cell size—The cell size of a raster or proxy raster dataset in the horizontal unit of the BIS geodatabase.
• Vertical units—The vertical unit of measurement of the elevation data in the BIS. This can be fathoms, feet, or meters.
• Directionality—The directionality of the elevation or depth data. This can be positive up or positive down.
• Minimum elevation—The lowest elevation in the dataset. To filter by minimum elevation, provide a range for the lowest elevation values you want to include in the filtered data. For example, creating a range from 0 to 3 to include features that have a minimum elevation value between 0 and 3 feet.
• Maximum elevation—The highest elevation in the dataset. To filter by maximum elevation, provide a range for the highest elevation values you want to include in the filtered data.

Custom fields must be included in the BIS schema to be added as a metadata filter in the Explore Bathymetry pane. You can add more filters to the Explore Bathymetry pane by adding the metadata field names to the Fields to Display record in the BisDetails table.

Learn more about customizing metadata fields