Backscatter Grid of Lord Howe Island Shelf, 2008 Survey

Lord Howe Island shelf in New South Wales was surveyed in 2008 by Geoscience Australia to map seabed bathymetry and characterise benthic environments. The lh_back_8m grid is a backscatter product covering 1034 sq km, produced from processed EM300 data acquired by the RV Southern Surveyor. Subbottom profiles, sediment samples, and video observations were also collected during the survey.

Use Cases

• Map seabed hardness and sediment type based on backscatter intensity.
• Characterise benthic habitats by correlating backscatter data with colocated video observations.
• Analyze shelf stratigraphy by integrating backscatter with subbottom profile data.

Strengths

• Covers a 1034 sq km area of the Lord Howe Island shelf.
• Integrates data from a dedicated 2008 marine survey with other preexisting bathymetric data.
• Includes colocated sampling of sediments, infauna, rock cores, and underwater video for ground-truthing.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last updated 2026-06-04 07:10:26.343979; freshness should be verified.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network via data_gov_au.

Collection Method

Data acquired during the SS062008 marine survey using the RV Southern Surveyor and processed using the CMST-GA MB Process.

Time Range

Survey conducted in 2008, with some mooring data from a preceding 6-month deployment in 2007.

Geography

Lord Howe Island shelf, New South Wales, Australia.