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Geoinformatics_04-2009
article ping to chart over the last twenty years sonar technology has become a commonly used tool in hydrographic survey operations. the sonar ping and returning echo can be used to determine sea floor and sub-sea floor geology, measure the water depth and more recently, to analyse the water column for biomass or dangerous obstructions. by andrew hoggarth figure 1 multibeam sonar data collected by the centre for environment, fisheries & aquaculture science under contract to natural england. the bathymetric dem created in caris hips and sips(tm) software shows a rocky reef and adjacent sandbank. current status compared to modern day sonar surveys, traditional sea floor surveying techniques would have been much slower and more prone to error. additionally, they would have resulted in a sparse representation, describing trends rather than the accurate, high-resolution digital elevation models (dems) which can be the result of a sonar survey today. only small portions of the world s oceans are currently mapped at a high-resolution but this is continually increasing as sonar becomes more and more affordable and more widely used. the high-resolution data returning from ongoing survey activities is finding its way into the hands of geographic information experts for further analysis and integration with other datasets and soon even into the public realm through initiatives like google ocean. sonar mapping basics sonars are most commonly mounted on a ship or on a towfish that is attached to the stern of the ship by a cable. they can also be mounted on a remotely operated underwater vehicle (rov) or increasingly be included june 2009 6
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