MH370 Phase 2: High-Resolution Sea Floor Sonar Data from the Southern Indian Ocean

Between September 2014 and January 2017, multiple survey vessels collected over 121,000 square kilometres of high-resolution sonar data in the Southern Indian Ocean during the search for missing flight MH370. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau led the operation, with Geoscience Australia providing expertise for marine surveys to map the previously unknown sea floor topography. This dataset contains the raw and processed data from Phase 2 of the underwater search, as received from third-party operators.

Use Cases

• Creating detailed bathymetric maps based on the high-resolution multibeam and side scan sonar data.
• Analyzing sea floor topography for safe underwater vehicle navigation in the search area.
• Studying geological features in a remote region of the Southern Indian Ocean where few marine surveys have occurred.

Strengths

• Covers over 121,000 square kilometres of the search area.
• Provides high-resolution data where previous maps were coarse and derived from satellites.
• Data was collected by multiple vessels over a period from September 2014 to January 2017.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and specific file sizes are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the specific search operation.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, on behalf of the Governments of Australia, Malaysia and the People's Republic of China.

Collection Method

Data acquired by survey vessels (e.g., Fugro Equator, Go Phoenix) using towed and autonomous underwater vehicles with multibeam and side scan sonar.

Time Range

September 2014 to January 2017

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 15:49:52.775745; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Indian Ocean, specifically the MH370 search area.