Hydrographic Equipment

Rapid deployment for hydrographic surveys is possible due to the portable nature of the equipment we use. Recent projects have included the use of the following equipment:

Positioning & Gyro Compass: The VS110 features two GPS receivers inside one enclosure, and two multipath-resistant antennas in two separate enclosures. Increasing the distance between the two antennas increases heading accuracy, the Vector Sensor computes heading information with better than 0.15 degrees accuracy. The ability to adjust the antennas’ separation gives the Vector Sensor more versatility and the potential for higher performance. The Vector Sensor, besides providing accurate headings with GPS signals, also delivers sub-metre DGPS positioning accuracy when using decoded correction data. The VS110 is capable of receiving differentially corrected data from land-based Coast Guard beacon stations and from Space Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) such as the U.S. Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the European GPS Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS), and Japan's MTSAT Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS).

Multibeam Echo Sounder: The EM 3002 is an advanced multibeam echosounder with extremely high resolution and dynamically focused beams. It is suited for detailed seafloor mapping and inspection with water depths between 0.5 and 150 meters. Due to its electronic pitch compensation system and roll stabilized beams, the system performance is stable even in foul weather conditions.

Single Beam Echo Sounder: The Ceeducer is a highly portable, easy to install and easy to use professional hydrographic survey system. It provides the user DGPS positioning, single channel echosounder and internal logging in a durable and rugged housing.

Navigation & Processing: We use the QPS QINSy data acquisition and processing package which gives us the flexibility and power needed to perform a range of survey tasks. It supports single beam, dual frequency, multiple transducer and multibeam echosounders, along with gyros, magnetometers, telemetry tide gauges and other survey devices.

The program can be configured to display and track single vessels, multiple vessels, or the main vessel and ROVs or towfish. Users can display the vessel's positions against background files of DXF, DGN, TIF, S-57, BSB, C-Map or VPF file format.

Subsea Positioning: Easytrak is an Ultra Short Baseline (USBL) underwater positioning and tracking system centred on a multi-element, single transducer that transmits and receives acoustic signals to dynamic subsea targets from which range, bearing and depth information can be determined.

As a full system package, Easytrak has been specifically designed to overcome the difficulties of tracking underwater targets such as divers, ROV’s, AUV’s and tow-fish which operate out of sight beneath the water surface. Advances in acoustic technology and software interfacing allow the entire system to be truly portable, enabling a simple transfer from stowage to vessel.

Sidescan Sonar: The C-Max CM2 family of towfish includes two dual frequency models, types DF and EDF. These cover a total of three acoustic frequencies, namely 100kHz (LF), 325kHz (HF) and 780kHz (EF).

For most search and survey tasks the DF towfish is the most useful. In LF mode the search swath is up to 1000m wide, useful for searching for larger objects such as wrecks or freight containers. In HF mode it is usually possible to distinguish such objects as mooring ropes, anchor chain, anchors, scour marks, pilings, crab pots, rocks (down to the size of a briefcase or less), as well as differences in seabed texture.

In cases where we need extra equipment we are able to make use of the extensive national hire pool available to us.