Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) Civil Hydrography Programme 2022 Backscatter and Samp

Acoustic backscatter mosaics, seabed samples, and images from the UK's Civil Hydrography Programme. Data was collected in 2022 by the vessel Noortruck using a Kongsberg EM 2040 multibeam echosounder and verified by the UK Hydrographic Office. The British Geological Survey (BGS) is the organization providing this dataset.

Use Cases

• Classify seabed sediment types based on acoustic backscatter data.
• Map seafloor morphology and features based on backscatter mosaics.
• Validate or ground-truth remote sensing data using physical seabed samples.
• Analyze habitat suitability based on combined imagery and sample data.

Strengths

• Data quality is verified by the authoritative UK Hydrographic Office.
• Includes multiple complementary data types: mosaics, physical samples, and images.
• Collection details are specified, including the vessel (Noortruck) and sensor (Kongsberg EM 2040).

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

British Geological Survey (BGS)

Collection Method

Collected via ship-based survey as part of the Civil Hydrography Programme (CHP).

Time Range

2022

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-09 08:29:31.431321; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Farne Isles to Wee Bankie, UK coastal waters.