FK200930 Northern Great Barrier Reef Bathymetry Acquisition

A 47-day survey from September 30 to November 17, 2020 collected bathymetry data in the Northern Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. The dataset includes fifteen 4m, 9m, 10m, 16m, and 32m resolution geotiff files produced from Kongsberg EM302 multibeam sonar data. It is published by the Australian Ocean Data Network with permission from Geoscience Australia.

Use Cases

• Mapping submarine canyons and drowned reefs based on high-resolution bathymetry data.
• Analyzing underwater landslide debris fields based on mapping of the Swain slide.
• Filling data gaps between shallow reef LIDAR and steep flank multibeam data around Coral Sea reefs.
• Exploring frontier marine regions based on previously sparse multibeam data coverage.

Strengths

• Survey conducted over 47 days, providing extensive temporal coverage for data collection.
• Data includes multiple resolution levels (4m, 9m, 10m, 16m, 32m) for detailed analysis.
• Focus on frontier marine regions with previously very little multibeam data.
• Includes backscatter and water column data from multibeam systems.

Limitations

• Dataset is not to be used for navigational purposes, limiting its application scope.
• EM710 data acquired on the survey will be included in a future release, making this dataset incomplete.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Geophysical mapping using Kongsberg EM302 and EM710 multibeam sonar systems on RV Falkor.

Time Range

September 30, 2020 to November 17, 2020

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-16 10:07:11.019234; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Northern Great Barrier Reef, Cape York Peninsula, Swain Reefs, eastern Coral Sea Marine Park.