Latest News from GeoAcoustics

GeoAcoustics at Oceanology International 2008

GeoAcoustics Ltd. is very pleased to report that Oceanology International 2008 (Excel Centre, London, UK), was a great success. This year GeoAcoustics had a bigger stand than ever, which proved to be a good decision and was full most of the time with key contacts and prospective customers from all over the world.

The SmartSpace booth, with new graphics designed by Martin Gutowski, made an eye-catching impact and showed the wide range of products available. Survey tools for all aspects of engineering geophysics were presented, including analogue and digital side-scans, swath bathymetry systems, sub-bottom profilers, and deep-towed combined systems.

Peter Hogarth, Technical Director of GeoAcoustics commented: “The interest in survey payload systems for small-to-medium AUV’s was noticeably higher this year. Our exhibits showing the GeoSwath installed on the Gavia and Talisman AUV’s, which have seen action in the Arctic, Caribbean, Caspian and elsewhere, were major points of interest.”

One highlight for GeoAcoustics was the sale on the stand of a GeoSwath Plus wide swath bathymetry sonar system to Halcrow plc on Thursday morning (yes, a genuine sale at an exhibition!). The first use of this system will be mapping Lyme Bay on the south coast of the UK, from the 1m depth contour to 1km further out to sea – ideal territory for the GeoSwath.

When approached about his experience of the show Bill Hone, Operations manager at GeoAcoustics said “I haven’t got time to give you a quote about OI, I am way too busy doing follow-ups, go away”. He also noted that the goldfish bowl left to accept business cards with the prize of a free phone call from Ralf Timm was a big disappointment, as only 4 cards and a bus ticket were entered. Thankfully the bus ticket won.

As ever, there was not enough time to see everyone! Congratulations are due to Reed Exhibitions on a great show.

GeoSwath Training Course and Seminar in Norway

In February 2008 a GeoSwath Plus Training Course was held in Trondheim, Norway. This was hosted by the Norwegian Geological Survey (NGU), who have been using a 125kHz GeoSwath to map the Norwegian coastal waters for more than 5 years. This version of the GeoSwath wide swath bathymetric sonar is suitable for mapping from the waterline to 200m water depth, so is ideal for the varied terrain around the Scandinavian coast.

After the training course in Trondheim the GeoAcoustics personnel moved on to Stavanger where Bo Krogh, GeoAcoustics’ regional agent, was hosting a seminar covering the full range of GeoAcoustics products for the engineering geophysics survey industry. The Norwegian Oil Museum in Stavanger was a fitting location to provide an update on recent technical developments and application histories. Duncan Mallace, director of NetSurvey Ltd., was the invited speaker, sharing his experiences with the GeoSwath Plus in very shallow coastal waters and introducing the new release of Fledermaus software.

The series of GeoSwath seminars and training courses planned by GeoAcoustics have become increasingly popular over the past two years. The Trondheim training course was attended by companies and government organisations from all over Norway, and one attendee had come over from Aberdeen. If you feel a seminar or training course would be useful in your region please contact ralf.timm@geoacoustics.com with your suggestions.

January 2008: a team of scientists, engineers, and technical divers have been mapping the coral reefs around the Caribbean island of Bonaire using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). Support for one of the AUV mission teams has been provided by Tom Hiller and James Baxter of GeoAcoustics, running a compact GeoSwath wide swath bathymetric sonar (GeoAcoustics Ltd, UK) mounted on a Gavia AUV (Hafmynd Ehf., Iceland).

The Bonaire mission has been funded by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Bonaire mission aims to use novel technology to enhance knowledge of the coral reef environment, and to motivate people to take action to sustain the reefs. The work in Bonaire has an especially high profile in 2008, which is the International Year of the Reef (see www.IYOR.org).

The Bonaire expedition is being led by Mark Patterson of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), along with co-Principal Investigators Arthur Trembanis (University of Delaware), Jim Leichter and Dale Stokes (Scripps Institution of Oceanography). Dr. Trembanis has recently placed an order for a GeoSwath-equipped Gavia for Coastal Sediments, Hydrodynamics, and Engineering Laboratory (CSHEL) at the University of Delaware.

At the time of writing the Gavia and GeoSwath have already proven their usefulness in Bonaire, with multiple missions completed from various beaches and jetties around the island. Data has been collected from shoreline missions and down to the 200m depth contour.

More background, progress reports, and teaching material can be found on NOAA’s Ocean Explorer website: http://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/.

Adil Ali (Seatronics), Ralf Timm & Martin Gutowski (GeoAcoustics)

MEOST 2008, the newly established conference/exhibition held in Abu Dhabi from 21^st to 23^rd January 2008 presented a good opportunity for GeoAcoustics to start its 2008 seminar programme. Our agent, Seatronics Limited Abu Dhabi, a member of the Acteon-group, invited local survey companies, port authorities and dredging companies to hear about the latest on underwater survey technology.

Martin Gutowski and Ralf Timm showed recent GeoSwath Plus data examples and some interesting installation suggestions; whilst Duncan Mallace introduced Fledermaus, the IVS interactive 3D data visualization system using his experience with shallow water multibeam systems when acting as contractor for the UK Hydrographic Office and the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).

30 guests joined the presentation and enjoyed the local dishes at lunch. Lots of interesting questions were asked and the presentation was well received. The day wound up with a glass of red wine in a Moroccan restaurant and some belly dancing in the desert.

Harbour Approach Survey in the Caspian Sea Using a Commercial Man-Portable AUV Carrying a Wide Swath Bathymetric Sonar.

In 2007 the Gavia Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (from Hafmynd, Iceland) and the GeoSwath wide swath bathymetric sonar (GeoAcoustics, UK) were used for the first time to perform a post-dredge survey of a port approach. This was part of an investigation of grounding of an oil company’s supply vessels. The survey found sandbars in the harbour approach which had been missed by previous single-beam surveys. Survey of the Port Approaches

The Gavia was in the Caspian Sea to perform a pre-lay trench survey for the engineering and construction contractor Acergy. For this job it was hand-launched from a beach; the Gavia is 2.6m long and weighs 80kg in air when configured for hydrographic survey. After the mission was complete the operating company requested a survey of the depths in a local port approach channel. The oil company’s captains were reporting groundings, but no swath survey vessels were available and a previous single beam survey had found no high spots.

The Gavia AUV was launched from a vessel holding station outside the port area. For the first mission it was programmed to run several meters below the surface and fully map the harbour approach channel using six 500m survey lines at 40m line spacing. This took less than an hour, and the Gavia then returned to the mother vessel and surfaced. The Gavia’s short-range wireless communications link was used to download the survey data from the GeoSwath unit. After a check of the data quality a second mission was uploaded, this time to survey the harbour approach inside the breakwater.

The GeoSwath data was processed within an hour of the Gavia’s return. The bathymetric map revealed several sandbars extending into the shipping channel, still showing the keel marks from the reported groundings. This map was supplied to the port authorities who carried out the required remedial dredge works.

Sedimentation Levels Monitored in Largest Yellow River Dam Using a GeoSwath Sonar.

The sediment levels in the Xiaolangdi dam (Yellow River, China) are being monitored using a GeoSwath wide swath bathymetry sonar manufactured by GeoAcoustics Ltd (Great Yarmouth, UK).

The Yellow River (Huang He in Chinese) runs for over 5,400km. After leaving Inner Mongolia it passes through the extensive Loess Plateau, picking up an annual silt load of up to 3.91 billion tonnes. This makes it the most sediment-laden river in the world. The Xiaolangdi Dam is located 40km north of the ancient city of Luoyang (Henan Province) at the lower end of the middle reaches of the river. Xiaolangdi is a multi-purpose project for flood prevention, ice control, fresh water supply and hydroelectric power. It supplies 5.1 billion kWh of electricity a year, enough to support several local cities. The project is the largest of its kind on the Yellow River, and in China is second only to the Three Gorges project on the Yangtze.

Following the completion of the 154m high dam in 2001 a reservoir covering 272 square kilometers was filled. The river’s sediment load leads to rapid siltation and requires regular controlled opening of the dam floodgates. Over 10,000 tourists come each year to see the gates opened and the accumulated sediment flushed out.

Accurate maps of the water depths in the dam are regularly made using a GeoSwath deployed on a small survey launch. The full coverage bathymetry allows the sediment deposition to be closely monitored, enabling clearing operations to be planned more efficiently and safely.

Li Zhen, Senior Engineer for the Xiaolangdi Water Resource Construction Administration, said “Our field experiments showed that the GeoSwath system has precise depth accuracy, is stable to run over long surveys, and the installation is particularly quick. This has given us improved survey efficiency with lower survey costs, making possible the measurement of sedimentation in a large reservoir by means of full coverage sonar mapping. The intuitive displays of the evolving topography has allowed accurate digital analysis of the developing sedimentation levels in the dam. When we first acquired the GeoSwath we put a lot of effort into checking the data quality and accuracy, and from an early stage we realised that it fully met all our requirements. The GeoSwath has proved to be an accurate and reliable sonar system capable of giving us full coverage digital terrain models of the whole dam, from shore to shore. The data it provides has proved very valuable in allowing us to plan sediment clearance works well in advance, when they are needed."

The GeoSwath system is one of many supplied and supported in China by the local GeoAcoustics agent, China-ORES Ltd. of Qingdao.

GeoAcoustics Seminar held in Kiel, Germany

Duncan Mallace, Martin Gutowski & Ralf Timm

The InWaterTec 2007 exhibition and conference took place in Kiel, Germany, in Halle 400 a converted submarine-assembly facility built in 1939. At that time the Halle contained a copper forge, a tin workshop and workshops for submarine compressors and engines and was the only building in the general area to survive WWII. Halle 400 is now a protected historical monument and since 2001 has been used as a convention centre with modern conference facilities, but still maintains its original “workshop spirit”. Nice Car

The GeoAcoustics seminar, arranged to coincide with InWaterTec 2007, took place on 11 October 2007 and was well attended by over 40 guests from Germany, Denmark and Poland. We presented the latest data examples from GeoChirp 3D, the Side Scan systems and GeoSwath Plus, our wide swath bathymetry system. Duncan Mallace, head of NetSurvey Limited and IVS 3D Limited, presented his experiences on a wide range of shallow water multibeam systems with many excellent data examples most of which were produced using the impressive features available in the Fledermaus software package. For more information on Fledermaus visit www.ivs3d.com . The audience was obviously impressed too as Duncan was asked lots of questions.

We were pleased that Duncan was able to make it to the seminar, but an element of good fortune was involved. On his way to Kiel he was lucky to receive an upgrade when he picked up his rental car, ending up with a black S-class Mercedes with dark windows instead of the usual puddle jumper he normally reserves. The car was comfortable and fast but unfortunately attracts quite a lot of attention. Duncan pulled into a service station north of Hamburg to try to get the German speaking Navigation-system changed to English. He was immediately approached by German Customs officers who questioned him and checked his passport. Unfortunately the officers did not help him to change the language on the Navigation-system! You will be pleased to learn that Duncan made it home safely and was not stopped by Customs officers again. Many thanks for joining us.

On 4 October 2007 GeoAcoustics held a product seminar in central Madrid at the Hotel NH Eurobuilding within walking distance of the well-known Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, home of Real Madrid FC. The event was organised by our agent, Antonio Girona of Hydroacoustics. Real played away the previous night so we could concentrate fully on sonars. The guests were all existing and potential users from survey companies and research institutes.

David Stone gave a presentation on the company “family history” since its establishment in 1978. Martin Gutowski dealt with the side scan sonar products and the profiler range, with particular focus on GeoChirp 3D. What was most impressive was the fact that Martin gave the latter talk in Spanish, with a little help from Antonio on some of the more technical terms. After lunch Tom Hiller gave a talk on GeoSwath Plus, emphasising its excellent shallow water performance with lots of data examples.

After Tom’s presentation numerous questions from the audience were answered and the lunch was voted as excellent as ever.

El 4 de Octubre del 2007 GeoAcoustics realizó en el Hotel NH Eurobuilding, muy cerca del Estadio del Real Madrid, el Santiago Bernabéu, un seminario presentando sus productos. El evento fue organizado por nuestro agente local, Antonio Girona de Hydroacoustics. El Real Madrid jugó fuera la noche antes del seminario así que todos, delegados e invitados, pudimos concentrarnos en los sistemas de sónar de GeoAcoustics. Los invitados eran representantes de empresas e institutos de investigación con marcado interés en nuestros productos.

David Stone, director gerente de GeoAcoustics, introdujo la compañía que fue fundada en 1978 y habló sobre su historia. Martin Gutowski presentó los sistemas de sónares de barrido lateral y perfiladores incluyendo el inovativo sistema GeoChirp 3D. Martin hizo el esfuerzo de dar sus charlas en castellano con la ayuda de Antonio que le echó una mano con el vocabulario más específico. Despues de la comida Tom Hiller presentó el sistema GeoSwath Plus, nuestra sonda acústica de batimetría de banda ancha y sonda de barrido lateral simultánea, prestando especial atención a las ventajas de su utilización en aguas de poca profundiad, dando también muchos ejemplos prácticos. Durante el seminario hubo además suficiente tiempo para preguntas y respuestas. Como siempre en España, la comida y la compañía fueron excelentes durante toda nuestra estancia.

GeoAcoustics attended the NEVA 2007 exhibition in St. Petersburg, Russia this September. Through the local agent, Technopole, we invited several clients from the region to hear the latest information on GeoAcoustics' product developments and see some recent data examples. Over thirty clients participated in this one day seminar to learn about GeoSwath Plus and its versatile operational advantages. Data from GeoSwath Plus mounted on AUV’s and ROV’s as well as standard ship-borne data was presented. Martin Gutowski, GeoAcoustics senior geophysicist, presented the latest on GeoChirp 3D, our 3-dimensional sub-bottom profiler.

GeoAcoustics (Great Yarmouth, UK) and HYPACK (Middletown, CT, USA) are pleased to announce the successful completion of a cooperative effort to improve the integration between GeoAcoustics' "GeoSwath Plus" interferometric sonar and HYPACK's "HYSWEEP" module for multibeam data collection and processing. One of the key features of the new integration is the ability of HYSWEEP to log and re-process raw data using filters optimized for data collected using the GeoSwath Sonar. The enhanced integration of the GeoSwath sonar will become a standard feature in the next HYSWEEP release.

Dr. Tom Hiller, Advanced Products Manager at GeoAcoustics, said "While customers have been able to transfer part processed GeoSwath data into Hypack for some time, the streamlined seamless integration now possible between the GeoSwath wide swath bathymetric sonar and the powerful HYPACK processing and analysis toolset gives easy access to HYSWEEP’s capabilities for all our customers.”. For further information and image requests contact Tom Hiller, Advanced Products Manager, at tom.hiller@geoacoustics.com.

GeoAcoustics (Great Yarmouth, UK) is pleased to confirm that the Hong Kong based survey company EGS (Asia) Limited has recently taken delivery of two complete GeoAcoustics Deep Tow 2000 combined chirp- and sidescan sonars systems. The system is interfaced to C-View-software, a specially developed Seabed Data Management Package (SDMP) for acquisition, processing and charting seabed geology and morphology.

The systems are onboard the EGS 61 meter survey vessel “RV Ridley Thomas”, named after the company founder Nigel Ridley-Thomas and enable EGS to record sidescan-and subbottom chirp data for water depths of up to 2000 meters.

EGS commented: “We have chosen the Deep Tow 2000 because of its technical capabilities and because GeoAcoustics matched our commercial and logistical requirements. Since delivery, the systems have been used successfully in several cable route surveys in water depths up to 1600m off India, Iran, Sudan and Australia

GeoSwath Sonar Chosen by BAE Systems as Survey Payload for Talisman AUV Demonstrator Vehicle.

GeoAcoustics (Great Yarmouth, UK) is pleased to announce that the GeoSwath Plus wide swath sonar system has been selected by BAE Systems Underwater Systems as the first survey payload to be integrated into the modular, multi-role Talisman unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV).

The Talisman M vehicle is currently undergoing systems integration at BAE Systems, prior to field trials and a demonstrator tour of the United States planned in the third and fourth quarters of 2007.

Of the selection BAE Systems commented: “The GeoSwath attracted our attention as it is a neat, compact UUV ready-system with the ability to collect high resolution mapping and side-scan data simultaneously over a very wide swath. Combined with BAE Systems’ extensive experience in systems integration we are confident that the GeoSwath can give our customers a very attractive additional capability”.

The Gavia man-portable autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) from Hafmynd, Iceland, has returned from its latest trip to the Arctic circle, where it carried a GeoSwath wide swath sonar (GeoAcoustics, UK), collecting bathymetry and side scan data from the underside of the Arctic ice sheet.

The Gavia was deployed from the Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station 2007 (APLIS07), which has been built in the Beaufort Sea approximately 300 miles North of Alaska. The 2.6m long by 20cm diameter Gavia AUV was launched through a 3m by 1m hole melted through the ice, and sent on a series of short out-and-back survey missions from the ice hole . For this survey it was ballasted to fly upside-down so that the camera, GeoSwath mapping sonar and Doppler velocity log (DVL) were looking upwards. The survey team were fascinated by the haunting photographs returned by the Gavia showing the spring sun shining through the 3m thick ice sheet.

First indications are that the bathymetry and side-scan data collection was fully successful, with only small changes required in the GeoSwath post-processing routines in order to cope with the Gavia AUV's inverted flying. The Kearfott Inertial Navigation System (INS), which provided positioning fixes for the survey operations, also coped remarkably well with this fairly unusual deployment.

The New South Wales Department of Environment & Conservation (NSW DEC) have been using a 125 kHz GeoAcoustics GeoSwath Plus wide swath sonar system for habitat mapping within the state's network of Marine Protected Areas. The maps produced have proved invaluable in the planning process for two new parks announced last year and that come into effect during the first half of 2007.

The GeoSwath system has been used extensively at Broughton Island, Port Stephens – Great Lakes Marine Park, a site where the endangered Grey Nurse Shark (Carcharias taurus) gathers. Prior to formation of the Marine Park the species had been protected by a 500m fishing exclusion zone centred on an area of guttered, high profile reef to the east of the island. The GeoSwath Plus data collected by the NSW DEC has contributed significantly to the inclusion of many reefs to the south and east of the island within Sanctuary and/or Habitat Protection zones for the new Marine Park.

Tim Ingleton, Environmental Scientist at DEC commented “We have found the GeoSwath Plus system to be a powerful tool for this mapping work. The software allows the production of high quality bathymetric grids very quickly. We have also been able to achieve excellent sidescan mosaics with the use of GeoAcoustics GeoTexture package.” An additional aspect of this work is that DEC are using both the bathymetry and sidescan outputs with spatial data in GIS packages to help to classify habitat type.

Use of the GeoSwath equipment continues with a new program due to commence in July 2007 and run for the next 2 years. This project involves habitat mapping for the state's coastal Catchment Management Authorities, focusing on sections of the NSW coast to help in the understanding of the biodiversity associated with shallow (<80m) subtidal reefs in coastal waters.

In recent trials off Trondheim, Norway, the GeoSwath Plus swath bathymetry and side scan system (from GeoAcoustics Ltd., UK) was used for the first time on a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to map cold water coral reefs.

The objective of the survey was to test how effective the GeoSwath was as a ROV mounted sonar for identifying cold-water coral colonies. At 60m deep the Tautra ridge in Trondheim Fjord is home to world’s shallowest known cold-water coral reef, and was an ideal site for initial system trials. The corals seen there usually thrive in much deeper waters.

The GeoSwath was deployed on a Minerva Sub-fighter 7500 ROV, along with video equipment and hiPAP positioning. The GeoSwath co-registered side-scan and bathymetric data allowed maps of the coral extents to be made on the ROV control vessel in real time. These observations were then used to plan video transects of selected sites which confirmed the presence of the corals, before recovery of the ROV.

Martin Ludvigsen of Trondheim University commented “From the results at the Tautra ridge I could with a high confidence identify even smaller coral colonies in the side scan data. To the biologist the combination of side scan and bathymetric data showed how the position of corals was connected to the topography. The GeoSwath has proved to be an effective tool to map medium sized sites at deeper water.”

The trials were organised in association with NTNU (Trondheim) and Bo Krogh BV of Denmark.”

Contact details for further information and image requests:
Tom Hiller, Advanced Products Manager (tom.hiller@geoacoustics.com)