MH370 Phase 2 Search: Raw and Processed Marine Survey Data

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and Geoscience Australia led Phase 2 of the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the Southern Indian Ocean. Survey vessels collected over 121,000 square kilometres of high-resolution multibeam and side scan sonar data between September 2014 and January 2017. This dataset contains the raw and processed data from that operation, intended to create detailed sea floor maps for the underwater search.

Use Cases

• Generate detailed bathymetric maps based on high-resolution multibeam sonar data.
• Analyze sea floor topography for safe navigation of underwater vehicles mentioned in the description.
• Study the geological features of a previously unmapped region of the Southern Indian Ocean.
• Benchmark and develop algorithms for processing raw side scan sonar data.

Strengths

• Covers over 121,000 square kilometres of previously unmapped ocean floor.
• Data is described as high-resolution, collected with multibeam and side scan sonar.
• Surveys were conducted by multiple vessels over a multi-year period from September 2014 to January 2017.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is 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

Acquired by multiple survey vessels using towed and autonomous underwater vehicles with multibeam and side scan sonar.

Time Range

September 2014 to January 2017

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 08:27:27.102860; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Indian Ocean, specifically the MH370 search area.