AHO Reference Surfaces Banks Strait 0.5m 2023

December 2021 bathymetry survey data for Banks Strait to Cape Barren, Tasmania. The Australian Hydrographic Office contracted this national reference survey to calibrate multibeam echosounders. It provides a 0.5-meter resolution grid in MSL, LAT, and Ellipsoid vertical datum exported as a 32-bit floating point GeoTIFF.

Use Cases

• Calibrating multibeam echosounders based on the survey's stated purpose.
• Analyzing seabed topography based on high-resolution bathymetric grids.
• Creating reference surfaces for nautical charting based on the vertical datum information.
• Comparing bathymetric data across different vertical datums based on the provided MSL, LAT, and Ellipsoid grids.

Strengths

• High-resolution 0.5-meter grid detail.
• Survey conducted using Kongsberg EM 2040 MkII and EM 2040P multibeam echosounders.
• Data processed using QPS Qimera software.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Australian Hydrographic Office via the Hydroscheme Industry Partnership Program.

Collection Method

Contracted survey acquired using Kongsberg multibeam echosounders and processed with QPS Qimera.

Time Range

Survey acquired on 17 December 2021.

Freshness

Survey acquired in December 2021; metadata last updated 2026-05-05.

Geography

Banks Strait to Cape Barren, Tasmania, Australia.