AHO Reference Surfaces: Bathymetry Survey of Cairns, 0.5m Resolution

A 0.5m resolution bathymetry survey of three sites in Cairns, Queensland, acquired on 27 May 2020. The surface was created from a contracted national reference survey for the Australian Hydrographic Office to calibrate multibeam echosounders. Data is provided as 32-bit floating point GeoTIFF grids in MSL, LAT, and Ellipsoid vertical datums.

Use Cases

• Calibrating multibeam echosounders based on the described purpose of the survey.
• Modeling seafloor topography based on the 0.5m resolution bathymetric grids.
• Comparing vertical datums based on the availability of MSL, LAT, and Ellipsoid surfaces.
• Supporting marine spatial planning in the Cairns region based on the geographic coverage.

Strengths

• High 0.5m spatial resolution for detailed seafloor representation.
• Survey conducted with specific equipment (R2Sonic 2022) and processed with Caris HIPS & SIPS software.
• Provides three separate grids for different vertical datums (MSL, LAT, Ellipsoid).

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is explicitly not to be used for navigational purposes, restricting its primary application.

Provenance

Source

Australian Hydrographic Office, collected under the Hydroscheme Industry Partnership Program.

Collection Method

Acquired via a contracted survey using R2Sonic 2022 multibeam echosounder and processed using Caris HIPS & SIPS.

Time Range

Survey acquired on 27 May 2020.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 13:32:45.635068; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Cairns, Queensland, Australia.