HR: 1330h
AN: OS32A-0230    [PDF]
TI: Complementary Fine-Scale Multibeam Acoustic Bathymetry and Photomosaicking from an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
AU: * Yoerger, D R
EM: dyoerger@whoi.edu
AF: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MS7 Blake Bldg, Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AU: Sellers, C
EM: csellers@whoi.edu
AF: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MS7 Blake Bldg, Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AU: Duester, A R
EM: aduester@whoi.edu
AF: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MS7 Blake Bldg, Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AU: Singh, H
EM: hsingh@whoi.edu
AF: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MS7 Blake Bldg, Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AB: In June of 2003, we surveyed portions of the New England Seamounts with the Autonomous Benthic Explorer (ABE). We used multibeam bathymetry and digital photo imagery to characterize the mountainous terrain and to search for environments where fossilized deep sea corals could be found, enabling efficient sampling by DSV Alvin. The surveys utilized ABE's long baseline acoustic navigation, bottom-following, and track-following capability along with its 80-element 200 kHz multibeam sonar to create detailed bathymetric maps. Then, these maps were used to plan photomosaicking runs that enabled the vehicle to follow nearly-constant depth profiles from a height of 6 meters. This technique not only produced photo runs from a nearly uniform depth, but it substantially improved the vehicle's bottom-following performance and reduced vehicle power consumption. The resulting complementary maps show areas where the desired fossil corals can be found, and relate those areas to the overall geological setting.
DE: 3035 Midocean ridge processes
DE: 3094 Instruments and techniques
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting