As seen at the NOAA Satellite and Information Services Website:
2 minute color relief images of the surface of the Earth.

Many critics have debated the very existence of the Underwater Network of Lines found first shown here. As will be shown in the following article, the data collection methods of the underwater earth topography are extremely precise and the 2 minute color relief images are not only compiled from extremely precise satellite data mapping methods but over 30 years of shipboard Bathymetric depth soundings.

The two major sources of data collection for the Surface of the Earth, 2 minute color relief images web map are satellite altimetry and “quality-assured shipboard echo-sounding measurements.”(1) In the ‘Database Assembly’ section of the “Surface of the Earth” web page it is also noted that:

five major data sources were also assembled into the single ETOPO2 2-minute data base without formal edge matching or other methods that alter the data as initially posted. Higher-resolution data take precedence…(2)

In another paper referenced at the NOAA Satellite and Information Services website entitled “Global Bathymetric Prediction for Ocean Modelling and Marine Geophysics” written by David T. Sandwell and Walter H. F. Smith, who were responsible for compiling one of the five major data sources for the creation of the 2 minute relief map. Some interesting facts are found concerning data collection via ship-board soundings/Bathymetric readings from the article:

In contrast to the Shuttle mission which can recover the land topography in 10 days, it would take approximately 125 ship-years to map the ocean basins at a 100 m horizontal resolution. Here we propose to map the topography of the ocean basins at a 3-10 km resolution using data collected by satellite altimeters and ship born echo sounders. This is a diverse effort that is currently partly funded by the Marine Geology and Geophysics Division Program at NSF and was partly funded under the NASA Global Geodynamics Program…. On March 15, 1995 ERS-1 completed its dense mapping (~8 km track spacing at equator) of the marine gravity between latitudes of +81.5. On July 28, 1995 all of the Geosat altimeter data were declassified (~4 km track spacing at the equator; latitudes between +72). Moreover, the Topex/Poseidon altimeter has accumulated many years of data having exceptional quality.

It would seem then that the 2 minute relief images, are not only of exceptional quality but are compiled from 5 different data sources to create a single image map.

According to Sandwell and Smith’s Global Bathymetric article, the data and preparation of the shipboard sounding data are assembled by a method called ‘Nettleton’s Method. Data seams which may produce overlapped images are avoided and ‘all work is done on a global grid between latitudes of +72 degrees’. As some critics may argue upon reading the entire Global Bathymetric article, there are reports of bad and good sections of ship sounding cruises. But, according to the 4 data bases that are maintained by Sandwell and Smith there is a lot of overlap among the data bases which means a ship following a given path to take a sounding of the undersea topographic data also reports the same data another ship has taken of the same path. Sometimes ship cruises are bad and can produce a seafloor topographic feature that doesn’t exist, but the good cruises outweigh the bad cruises which can be seen in the article statistics. Plus, one has to remember this is only one database of the 5 databases mentioned that were combined to produce the “Surface of the Earth, 2 minute color relief images web map” that reveal the line network.

Also available at the Smith and Sandwell Global Bathymetric article is a “Ship Track Map” that can be accessed by clicking the link above and scrolling down to the "Cleaning and Rescue of Ship Soundings" where the map contains 16 clickable regions of ship track coverage. A comparison was tested between the Bermuda area “Ship Track Map” and the original 2 minute color topographic relief image of the Bermuda area. The ship tracks did not match any of the 2 minute color relief images of the Bermuda Network of lines or any other lines in the vicinity. Furthermore the ship track lines would be much smaller than the lines that make up the 2 minute line network as seen in the original 2 minute Topographic relief map.

ADDITION: The ship tracks were 'cleaned' from the final processed image according to the NASA articles. Why would they clean some lines off, if they are ship radar lines, and leave some lines intact?

Another interesting find at the NOAA site is another map similar to the 2 minute relief map that can be accessed here: EXPLORING THE OCEAN BASINS WITH SATELLITE ALTIMETER DATA. This map is also created from satellite altimeter data readings and shipboard depth soundings, and the altimeter is reported in the article as being ‘a very accurate radar altimeter mounted on a satellite.’ Satellite Discoveries purchased this map which can be bought from NGDC by following this link: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/products/ngdc_posters.html. It is called ‘Measured and Estimated Seafloor Topography, RP-1, 1997’. The map data which also includes the Network of Underwater lines corresponds almost perfectly with the “Surface of the Earth, 2 minute color relief image map” of the Underwater Line Network! Of further note in the article:

Profiles from many satellites, collected over many years, are combined to make high resolution images… Moreover, after the conversion, the satellite-derived gravity measurements can be compared and combined with gravity anomaly measurements made by ships.

Also of interesting note is the fact that “depth data were obtained by screening 6905 ship board surveys from the NGDC (Marine Trackline Geophysics CD-ROM version 3.2)”

According to Chapter 11- Bathymetric Estimation by David T. Sandwell and Walter H. F. Smith in their abstract section:

A dense mapping of ocean surface topography from declassified Geosat altimeter data (US Navy), ERS-1 altimeter data (European Space Agency), and repeat-track coverage from the Topex/Poseidon altimeters (NASA and CNES) has provided the first view of the ocean floor structures in many remote areas of the Earth.(3)

Topographic mapping with orbiting lasers and radar altimeters from space is currently being used to map such planets as Venus, Mars and the Moon. However, due to the water coverage on the surface of the Earth: “one cannot directly map the topography of the ocean basins from space, most seafloor mapping is a tedious process that has been carried out over a 30 year period by research vessels equipped with single or multibeam echo sounders”.(4) Secondly, “radar altimeters aboard the ERS-1 and Geosat spacecraft have surveyed the marine gravity field over nearly all of the world’s oceans to a high accuracy and moderate spatial resolution.”(5)

Curious Names

According to information provided in the articles referenced above that can be accessed online at the NGDC website, one of the satellites responsible for the 5 sources of data is named ‘Topex’ and contains the on board satellite altimeter strangely named ‘Poseidon’. Poseidon was a Greek god of the sea. According to myth “He lived on the ocean floor in a palace made of coral and gems, and drove a chariot pulled by horses.”(6) Another interesting story of Poseidon is taken from Chapter II 'Plato’s History of Atlantis' taken from the book "Atlantis The Antediluvian World" by Ignatius Donnelly. This story relates how the gods distributed the whole earth amongst themselves. It also goes on to state that Poseidon, received his lot of the island of Atlantis. So, Poseidon ruled the island of Atlantis where he begat children by a mortal woman and created great architectural wonders such as the fabled city ringed with circles.

Although these curious names of satellite instruments eluding to Atlantis may be purely coincidental by officials at NASA and USGS, it still evokes a possibility that more may be known about our Earth using remote sensing than current science has revealed.

"...we are living like bats in the ruins of a haunted house among the relics and ruins of the past, not just physically but mentally, caught in outmoded forms of thought."(Megalithic England -The Atlantean Dimensions, A Conversation with John Michell)