Outer Darwin Harbour Seabed Rock Probability Grid, 2015 Survey

Geoscience Australia, AIMS, and the Northern Territory Government collected this probability of rocky/hard seabed grid for Outer Darwin Harbour from 28 May to 23 June 2015. The dataset is a derived product from multibeam sonar angular backscatter data, part of a four-year (2014-2018) marine environmental baseline program funded by the INPEX-led Ichthys LNG Project. Data acquisition included multibeam bathymetry, seabed sediment samples, underwater imagery, and oceanographic tidal information.

Use Cases

• Modeling seabed habitat types based on acoustic backscatter properties mentioned in the description.
• Informing marine spatial planning decisions based on the baseline data collected for Darwin and Bynoe Harbour regions.
• Calibrating acoustic data interpretation with physical sediment samples and underwater imagery collected during the survey.

Strengths

• Data collection involved multiple authoritative institutions: Geoscience Australia, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, and the Northern Territory Government.
• Survey period is precisely defined as 28 May to 23 June 2015.
• A detailed post-survey report (Record 2016/008) is cited, providing methodological documentation.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The specific spatial resolution and accuracy metrics of the probability grid are not detailed in the provided metadata.
• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia (GA), the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), and the Northern Territory Government (Department of Land Resource Management).

Collection Method

Multibeam sonar bathymetry and acoustic backscatter data collection from the RV Solander (survey SOL6187/GA0351), supplemented by physical sediment samples and underwater imagery.

Time Range

28 May 2015 to 23 June 2015 (survey), part of a program spanning 2014-2018.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 07:11:49.373819; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Outer Darwin Harbour, including Shoal Bay, Northern Territory, Australia.