Integrating Towed Underwater Video and Multibeam Acoustics for Marine Benthic Habitat Mapping and Fish Population Estimation

Benthic habitat mapping using multibeam sonar

Multibeam sonar (MBS) systems are recognised as one of the most effective tools available to map and characterise the seafloor as they can provide co-located high-resolution bathymetry and acoustic backscatter characteristics from a wide swath across a vessel’s track. While the production of bathymetry maps from MBS is well developed, processing and analysis of MBS backscatter data has not yet ...

Integrating Multibeam Backscatter Angular Response, Mosaic and Bathymetry Data for Benthic Habitat Mapping

Multibeam echosounders (MBES) are increasingly becoming the tool of choice for marine habitat mapping applications. In turn, the rapid expansion of habitat mapping studies has resulted in a need for automated classification techniques to efficiently map benthic habitats, assess confidence in model outputs, and evaluate the importance of variables driving the patterns observed. The benthic habit...

Position Estimation of a Towed Underwater Body

Constrained Channel Estimation Methods in Underwater Acoustics

Underwater acoustic signal processing aims to reconstruct the shallow water acoustic channel from both direct arrival and delayed multipath reflections. This enables accurate acoustic communications in shallow water, such as between underwater autonomous vehicles (UAVs), which are essential for coastal surveillance and other applications. In this work, we take a previously implemented algorithm...

Overview: Marine Habitat Mapping Technology for Alaska

Benthic habitat mapping has become the principal method for defining the distribution of benthic habitats, and indicating or predicting the distribution of marine organisms that are closely associated with these habitats. The method is heavily dependent on technologies, both at remote sensing scales for creation of seafloor maps and at smaller scales, mainly visual and sampling activities, for ...