There are a few acoustic systems that are used to map the seabed. The multi-beam echo-sounder is one of them. Typically, the system is attached to the bottom of a ship. It uses advanced beam forming methods as it projects a pulse of sound in a narrow arc into the water column and receives the return echo in narrow arc perpendicular to the transmit arc.
This sub-project aims to provide the large scale component of habitat mapping at a high resolution. This will integrate with the other sub-projects in two ways. Firstly, the information at the larger scales will help in decision making related to what areas should be sampled on a finer scale, with either video or core sampling techniques (sub-project 2 and sub-project 3). Secondly, by linking the findings at the smaller more detailed scales (sub-projects 2 and sub-project 3) to the larger scale (sub-project 1), detailed findings will be extrapolated to higher coverage.
Another way that the geo-acoustic resolution will be increased is by using data from multiple systems such as a multi-beam echo-sounder, side-scan sonar, and a sub-bottom profiler. Data from these systems have all been used in the past for seafloor classification, but it’s the first time they will be used in combination.