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An uncertainty model for deep ocean single beam and multibeam echo sounder data

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Abstract

Comparing single beam and multibeam echo sounder data where surveys overlap we find that: 95% of multibeam measurements are repeatable to within 0.47% of depth; older single beam data can be at least as accurate as multibeam; single beam and multibeam profiles show excellent agreement at full-wavelengths longer than 4 km; archival sounding errors are not Gaussian; 95% of archival soundings in the northwest Atlantic are accurate to within 1.6% of depth; the 95th percentile error is about five times greater in pre-1969 data than in post-1968 data; many of the largest errors are located over large seafloor slopes, where small navigation errors can lead to large depth errors. Our uncertainty model has the form σ 2 = a 2 + (bz)2 + (cs)2, where 2σ is approximately the 95th percentile error, z is the depth, s is the slope, and a, b, c are constants we determine separately for pre-1969 and post-1968 data.

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Acknowledgments

This study was possible because the CCOM, JAMSTEC, and NGDC data sets were freely available for on-line download. We thank JAMSTEC (Contributors for MIRAI Data Web, (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002), MIRAI Data Web, http://www.jamstec.go.jp/mirai/, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka, Japan) for making their multibeam echo sounder data freely available, the US National Geophysical Data Center NGDC for making GEODAS, the Worldwide Marine Geophysical Database (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/geodas/trackline.html), freely available online, and the University of New Hampshire Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/NOAA Joint Hydrographic Center (CCOM) for making their surveys of potential extended continental shelf areas public. We thank two anonymous reviewers whose comments improved this manuscript. The views, opinions, and findings contained in this report are those of the authors and should not be construed as an official National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or US Government position, policy, or decision.

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  1. NOAA Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry, Silver Spring, MD, 20910, USA

    K. M. Marks & W. H. F. Smith

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  1. K. M. Marks
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  2. W. H. F. Smith
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Correspondence to K. M. Marks.

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Marks, K.M., Smith, W.H.F. An uncertainty model for deep ocean single beam and multibeam echo sounder data. Mar Geophys Res 29, 239–250 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-008-9060-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-008-9060-y

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