Outer Darwin Harbour Marine Survey 2015: High resolution backscatter grid

Brief description

This resource contains multibeam sonar backscatter data for Outer Darwin Harbour collected by Geoscience Australia (GA), the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and the Northern Territory Government (Department of Land Resource Management) during the period from 28 May and 23 June 2015 on the RV Solander (survey SOL6187/GA0351). This project was made possible through offset funds provided by INPEX-led Ichthys LNG Project to Northern Territory Government Department of Land Resource Management, and co-investment from Geoscience Australia and Australian Institute of Marine Science. The intent of this four year (2014-2018) program is to improve knowledge of the marine environments in the Darwin and Bynoe Harbour regions by collating and collecting baseline data that enable the creation of thematic habitat maps that underpin marine resource management decisions. The specific objectives of the survey were to:

1. Obtain high resolution geophysical (bathymetry) data for outer Darwin Harbour, including Shoal Bay;

2. Characterise substrates (acoustic backscatter properties, grainsize, sediment chemistry) for outer Darwin Harbour, including Shoal Bay; and

3. Collect tidal data for the survey area. Data acquired during the survey included: multibeam sonar bathymetry and acoustic backscatter; physical samples of seabed sediments, underwater photography and video of grab sample locations and oceanographic information including tidal data and sound velocity profiles. This dataset comprises multibeam backscatter data.

A detailed account of the survey is provided in:

Siwabessy, P.J.W., Smit, N., Atkinson, I., Dando, N., Harries, S., Howard, F.J.F., Li, J., Nicholas, W.A., Potter, A., Radke, L.C., Tran, M., Williams, D. and Whiteway, T., 2015. Outer Darwin Harbour Marine Survey 2015: GA0351/SOL6187 Post-survey report. Record 2016/008. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2016.008

Lineage

Maintenance and Update Frequency: asNeeded

Statement: The Outer Darwin Harbour Marine Survey 2015, GA-0351 SOL6187 was acquired by Geoscience Australia (GA), the Australian Institute of Marine
Science (AIMS) and Department of Land Resource Management (Northern
Territory Government) onboard the RV Solander between 28 May and 23 June 2015.
The AIMS Cruise Leader were Mr. David Williams (leg 1) and Mr. Simon Harries (leg 2), the NTGov Chief Investigator onboard was Dr. Neil
Smit, and the GA Survey Leader was Dr. Justy Siwabessy.
This dataset was acquired and processed onboard and in the office by Justy Siwabessy using CMST-GA MB Process v15.04.04.0.
Metadata:
The multibeam bathymetry was acquired by the following survey:
- Survey Name: Outer Darwin Harbour Marine Survey 2015 (GA-0351/SOL6187)
- Vessel Name: RV Solander
- Institutions: Geoscience Australia, AIMS, NTGov
- Country: Australia
- Operator: AIMS
- Multibeam system: Kongsberg EM2040C (dual)
- Year of installation: 2014
- Nominal sonar frequency: 300 kHz
- Number of beams: 800 beams
- Beamwidth across track: 1.3 degrees
- Beamwidth along track: 1.3 degrees
- Pulse length: variable
- Selectable depth range: 10 m - 50 m
- Vessel speed: 7 - 10 knots
- Start Date: 28/05/2015
- End Date: 23/06/2015
- Start Port: Darwin
- End Port: Darwin
- Grid resolution: 1 m
- Number of grids: 1
- Total surface coverage: 713.31 km2
- Horizontal Datum: WGS84 UTM-52S