‘Guidelines for the Use of Multibeam Echosounders for Offshore Surveys’ has been revised by members of the International Marine Contractors Association’s (IMCA) Offshore Survey Division Management Committee, to bring it up-to-date with current technology and practice.

“The growth in the use of multibeam echosounders (MBES) in the past two decades has been in part due to the ability of these instruments to cover wide swathes of the seafloor in a single pass. In addition, increases in processing power and availability of data storage at reasonable prices have made the technology accessible to a wider range of users,” explains IMCA’s Technical Director and Acting Chief Executive, Jane Bugler.

In addition to a glossary of terminology and an introduction, there are sections on multibeam echosounders; subsea vehicles and systems; sensor installation, calibration and location; calibration tests (patch tests); MBES data processing; standards for MBES surveys; survey planning; and a bibliography, IMCA noted.