Ocean researchers at China's SOA choose multibeam echo sounder from Atlas Hydrographic
BREMEN, Germany, 14 Jan. 2014. Ocean researchers at the State Oceanographic Administration (SOA) in Xiamen, China, needed a multibeam echo sounder to conduct hydrographic surveying in oceans deeper than 6,000 feet. They found their solution from Atlas Hydrographic GmbH in Bremen, Germany.
Officials of the 3rd Institute of Oceanography of the SOA has awarded Atlas Hydrographic a contract to supply an Atlas Hydrosweep multibeam echo sounder for hydrographic surveying from mid 2014.
The Atlas Hydrosweep multibeam echo sounder can take a bathymetric data sample of an area as large as nearly 20 square miles to an average water depth of about 12,000 feet, company officials say.
Besides its standard functions of recording bathymetric data of the seafloor structure and the ability of recording as many as 10,000 side scan values in parallel, the Hydrosweep MD/50 comes with a 4x multi-ping feature.
This operation mode enables the system to generate as many as four swaths simultaneously per ping using frequency modulation to increase the data density along track, company officials say.
As a result, the new multibeam echo sounder maintains gapless coverage at high survey speed enabling SOA fulfilling its tasks more efficiently in shorter time.
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Delivery of the system is scheduled for March 2014 and the sea acceptance trials will be conducted soon after. The MD/50 for SOA will be the third Hydrosweep Multibeam echo sounder in China.
For more information contact Atlas Hydrographic online at www.atlashydro.atlas-elektronik.com, or the State Oceanographic Administration of the People's Republic of China at http://english.gov.cn/2005-10/01/content_73182.htm.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
