AHO Reference Surfaces Darwin 0.5m 2023: Bathymetry Survey for Sonar Calibration

A high-resolution bathymetry survey of Darwin, Northern Territory, acquired for the Australian Hydrographic Office on 8 Jul 2020. Separate 0.5-meter resolution grids are provided for two surveyed sites in MSL, LAT, and Ellipsoid vertical datums. The dataset was processed using QPS Qimera and exported as a 32-bit floating point GeoTIFF.

Use Cases

• Calibrating multibeam echosounders based on the high-resolution reference surfaces.
• Analyzing seafloor topography based on the 0.5-meter resolution bathymetric grids.
• Comparing vertical datums based on the separate MSL, LAT, and Ellipsoid grids provided.

Strengths

• High 0.5-meter spatial resolution for detailed seafloor mapping.
• Provides data in three vertical datums (MSL, LAT, Ellipsoid) for flexibility.
• Data was acquired using specific survey equipment (R2Sonic 2026 and 2024).

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are unknown, limiting suitability assessment.
• The dataset is explicitly not to be used for navigational purposes.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Australian Hydrographic Office via the Hydroscheme Industry Partnership Program.

Collection Method

Acquired via contracted national reference survey using R2Sonic multibeam echosounders and processed with QPS Qimera.

Time Range

Survey acquired on 8 Jul 2020.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 05:45:58.900393; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.