MH370 Search Phase 1 Raw and Processed datasets

On behalf of Australia, and in support of the Malaysian accident investigation, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) was leading search operations for missing Malaysian airlines flight MH370 in the Southern Indian Ocean.

Geoscience Australia provided advice, expertise and support to the ATSB to facilitate bathymetric surveys, which were undertaken to provide a detailed map of the sea floor topography to aid navigation during the underwater search. Prior to the bathymetric survey, very little was known about the sea floor in the MH370 search area, as few marine surveys have taken place in the area. Existing maps of the sea floor were coarse, having been derived from satellites and only providing a general indication of water depth. Before the underwater search for MH370 could begin, it was necessary to accurately map the sea floor to ensure that the search is undertaken safely and effectively. Bathymetry survey vessels spent months at sea, scanning the sea floor with multibeam sonar to gather detailed, high-resolution data.

This collation of datasets on the National Computing Infrastructure contains the raw and processed data acquired during Phase 1 of the search for MH370. Bathymetric data was acquired by multibeam sonar mounted on the hull of multiple vessels (GA survey reference: GA-4421, GA-4422 & GA-4430). Bathymetric surveys were conducted from June 2014 to February 2017, collecting over 710,000 square kilometres of data in the search area and along transit lines (to and from the search area).The raw and processed datasets were acquired from Fugro Equator, Zhu Kehzen, Fugro Supporter between June 2014 and February 2017.

应澳大利亚方面委托，并配合马来西亚事故调查工作，澳大利亚运输安全局（Australian Transport Safety Bureau, ATSB）牵头在南印度洋开展马来西亚航空MH370失联航班的搜寻作业。

澳大利亚地球科学局（Geoscience Australia）为澳大利亚运输安全局提供咨询意见、专业技术与支持，以协助开展水深测量作业——此类作业旨在绘制详细的海底地形地图，辅助水下搜寻期间的航行作业。在此次水深测量启动前，MH370搜寻海域的海底状况鲜为人知，该区域此前极少开展海洋勘测工作。现有海底地图精度粗糙，均源自卫星遥感数据，仅能大致反映水深情况。在MH370水下搜寻正式启动前，必须精准绘制海底地图，以确保搜寻工作安全高效开展。水深测量作业船在海上连续作业数月，借助多波束声呐（multibeam sonar）扫描海底，以获取详细的高分辨率勘测数据。

本次汇编于国家计算基础设施（National Computing Infrastructure）的数据集，涵盖MH370搜寻第一阶段获取的原始数据与处理后数据。测深数据由安装于多艘作业船船舷的多波束声呐采集，澳大利亚地球科学局勘测编号为GA-4421、GA-4422与GA-4430。此次水深测量作业于2014年6月至2017年2月间开展，在搜寻区域及往返该区域的航线上共采集超过71万平方公里的勘测数据。上述原始与处理后的数据集，均于2014年6月至2017年2月间从辉固赤道号（Fugro Equator）、朱克珍号（Zhu Kehzen）与辉固支援号（Fugro Supporter）处获取。