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

The Southern Indian Ocean sea floor was mapped during the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Geoscience Australia collated over 121,000 square kilometres of raw and processed sonar data collected by multiple vessels between September 2014 and January 2017. The data provides detailed topography to support safe underwater search operations in a previously poorly mapped area.

Use Cases

• Modeling sea floor topography for navigation safety based on high-resolution bathymetric survey data.
• Analyzing sonar backscatter characteristics for geological feature identification based on side scan and multibeam sonar data.
• Studying the application of autonomous underwater vehicles in large-scale marine search operations based on the described survey methodology.

Strengths

• Covers over 121,000 square kilometres of the search area.
• Data was collected over a multi-year period from September 2014 to January 2017.
• Includes both raw and processed data from high-resolution multibeam and side scan sonar systems.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the specific search operation.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, on behalf of the Governments of Australia, Malaysia, and the People's Republic of China.

Collection Method

Marine surveys conducted by vessels using towed and autonomous underwater vehicles with multibeam and side scan sonar.

Time Range

September 2014 to January 2017

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 03:09:13.288375; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Indian Ocean, specifically the MH370 search area.