The availability and lower cost in recent years of faster more powerful desktop computers and sophisticated image processing software has made the creation and playback of fly-through movies that incorporate large terrain and imagery datasets a practical and relatively painless task. These movies are both entertaining and informative, giving the viewer a quick overview of the physiography of an area and provide a view of submarine topography that would otherwise be unattainable. The fly-throughs contained in this package were designed to show the major physiographic and geologic features of the Monterey Bay Region, both onshore and offshore, and also serve as a companion to some of the field trip guides found on the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories web page. The five flight paths included here were intended to show the Monterey Submarine Canyon, mid and upper continental slope canyons and ridges, the coastal zone, the Salinas Valley, the onland and offshore trace of the San Gregorio-Hosgri fault, the three mountain ranges in the area, and the trace of the San Andreas fault from San Juan Bautista to Santa Cruz.

Data and Processing
A topographic grid was created by combining SIMRAD EM300 multibeam bathymetry, collected by MBARI in 1998, with DEM's obtained from the US Geological Survey. The nearshore areas were filled in with scattered soundings data from NOAA and multibeam data collected by the US Geological Survey. All data were binned to a 30m cellsize and projected to UTM zone 10, using North American Datum 1983.
Imagery for the onshore region is 28.5m resolution IRS 1C satellite data collected June 20, 1999. The imagery was resampled to a 30 meter pixel size and combined with a gray-scale shaded relief image of the DEM to enhance the topographic shading with an artificial sun azimuth of 315° and an elevation of 45°. The offshore bathymetry was shaded with the same artificial sun angled and given a color gradation from dark blue in the depths to pale blue in the shallows. The enhanced satellite imagery and the color shaded bathymetry were then combined into one image.
ERDAS Imagine 8.4 with VirtualGIS module was used to combine the elevation and imagery data and create fly-through movies. The software enabled a pre-determined flight path to be laid digitized and edited as needed in an iterative process of trial and error. Parameters such as elevation, height above ground, field of view, look angle, pitch and roll, and flight speed could be adjusted for each flightline segment until the desired result was obtained. Cloud and fog effects, and a water surface were employed to give added realism and depth of field. Text labels were added to key geographic features.

• Monterey Bay Coastline
  
  
• Monterey Submarine Canyon - Salinas Valley
  
  
• Offshore Monterey Bay
  

• San Gregorio Fault
  

• Mountains: Sierra de Salinas and Gabilan Range

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