Seabed multi-beam back scatter mapping of the Australian continental margin

A multi-beam sonar (MBS) has been used to map Australia's continental margin seabed from the marine national facility vessel Southern Surveyor on opportunistic transit and research voyages since 2004 with 0.35 M km2 mapped. The MBS data are used to infer key ecological features based on bathyme...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kloser, Rudy, Keith, G.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Australian Acoustical Society 2013
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/52641
_version_ 1848758976540311552
author Kloser, Rudy
Keith, G.
author_facet Kloser, Rudy
Keith, G.
author_sort Kloser, Rudy
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description A multi-beam sonar (MBS) has been used to map Australia's continental margin seabed from the marine national facility vessel Southern Surveyor on opportunistic transit and research voyages since 2004 with 0.35 M km2 mapped. The MBS data are used to infer key ecological features based on bathymetry (e.g. seamounts, canyons, terraces, banks and deep reefs) and backscatter data for ecological hard (consolidated, e.g. rock for attachment of fauna) and soft (unconsolidated, e.g. mud for burrowing fauna) substrate. Seabed consolidation inference is consistent with a seabed scattering model. To consistently infer ecological significant hard and soft substrate from the backscatter data requires minimisation of errors due to changing absorption (~2 dB) with temperature and depth, calibration drift, changes in pulse length and estimates of area insonified due to seabed slope (&lt;8 dB). Area insonified corrections were required for both across and along-ship slopes. Highest corrections were needed for along-ship slopes in canyon regions and large incidence angles ( &gt;60°). A data collection and processing framework is described that works towards a national backscatter mapping program for environmental seabed mapping. Data collected and automated processing for depth, sound absorption and area insonified at level 2 of a possible 5 level data processing hierarchy is available for viewing at <a href="http://www.marine.csiro.au/geoserver">http://www.marine.csiro.au/geoserver</a>.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T09:52:33Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-52641
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T09:52:33Z
publishDate 2013
publisher Australian Acoustical Society
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-526412017-04-28T13:59:28Z Seabed multi-beam back scatter mapping of the Australian continental margin Kloser, Rudy Keith, G. A multi-beam sonar (MBS) has been used to map Australia's continental margin seabed from the marine national facility vessel Southern Surveyor on opportunistic transit and research voyages since 2004 with 0.35 M km2 mapped. The MBS data are used to infer key ecological features based on bathymetry (e.g. seamounts, canyons, terraces, banks and deep reefs) and backscatter data for ecological hard (consolidated, e.g. rock for attachment of fauna) and soft (unconsolidated, e.g. mud for burrowing fauna) substrate. Seabed consolidation inference is consistent with a seabed scattering model. To consistently infer ecological significant hard and soft substrate from the backscatter data requires minimisation of errors due to changing absorption (~2 dB) with temperature and depth, calibration drift, changes in pulse length and estimates of area insonified due to seabed slope (&lt;8 dB). Area insonified corrections were required for both across and along-ship slopes. Highest corrections were needed for along-ship slopes in canyon regions and large incidence angles ( &gt;60°). A data collection and processing framework is described that works towards a national backscatter mapping program for environmental seabed mapping. Data collected and automated processing for depth, sound absorption and area insonified at level 2 of a possible 5 level data processing hierarchy is available for viewing at <a href="http://www.marine.csiro.au/geoserver">http://www.marine.csiro.au/geoserver</a>. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/52641 Australian Acoustical Society restricted
spellingShingle Kloser, Rudy
Keith, G.
Seabed multi-beam back scatter mapping of the Australian continental margin
title Seabed multi-beam back scatter mapping of the Australian continental margin
title_full Seabed multi-beam back scatter mapping of the Australian continental margin
title_fullStr Seabed multi-beam back scatter mapping of the Australian continental margin
title_full_unstemmed Seabed multi-beam back scatter mapping of the Australian continental margin
title_short Seabed multi-beam back scatter mapping of the Australian continental margin
title_sort seabed multi-beam back scatter mapping of the australian continental margin
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/52641