AHO Reference Surfaces Darwin: Bathymetry Survey for Echosounder Calibration

A 0.5m resolution bathymetry surface was created from a contracted national reference survey in Darwin, Northern Territory, acquired on 8 July 2020. The Australian Hydrographic Office commissioned the survey under the Hydroscheme Industry Partnership Program, using R2Sonic 2026 and 2024 multibeam echosounders and processed with QPS Qimera. Separate 0.5m resolution grids are provided for two surveyed sites in MSL, LAT, and Ellipsoid vertical datums, exported as a 32-bit floating point GeoTIFF.

Use Cases

• Calibrate multibeam echosounder systems based on the high-resolution reference surfaces.
• Analyze seafloor morphology in Darwin Harbour based on the 0.5m resolution bathymetric data.
• Compare vertical datums (MSL, LAT, Ellipsoid) for hydrographic applications using the separate provided grids.

Strengths

• 0.5m spatial resolution provides detailed bathymetric information.
• Data includes separate grids for three vertical datums (MSL, LAT, Ellipsoid).
• Survey was conducted with specific, named equipment (R2Sonic 2026/2024) and software (QPS Qimera).

Limitations

• The dataset is explicitly not to be used for navigational purposes.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and total file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Hydrographic Office via Geoscience Australia Data.

Collection Method

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

Time Range

Survey acquired on 8 July 2020.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 03:17:34.648749; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, covering two specific surveyed sites.