MH370 Phase 2: High-Resolution Sea Floor Bathymetry and Sonar Data

The Search for Flight MH370 - Phase 2 Raw and Processed Data contains over 121,000 square kilometres of high-resolution marine survey data from the Southern Indian Ocean. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau led the search, with data acquired by multiple vessels using multibeam and side scan sonar between September 2014 and January 2017. Geoscience Australia provided expertise, and the data was collated by the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Use Cases

• Training sea floor object detection models based on high-resolution side scan sonar data.
• Analyzing underwater topography and bathymetry for geological research based on multibeam sonar surveys.
• Developing safe navigation maps for autonomous underwater vehicles based on detailed sea floor data.
• Studying data fusion techniques from multiple survey vessels and sensor types mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• Covers over 121,000 square kilometres of previously unmapped sea floor.
• Data was acquired using high-resolution multibeam and side scan sonar systems.
• Surveys were conducted by multiple specialized vessels over a period from 2014 to 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.

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 third-party operators using towed and autonomous underwater vehicles equipped with multibeam and side scan sonar.

Time Range

September 2014 to January 2017

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-16 08:49:13.738409; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Indian Ocean, specifically the MH370 search area.