Southern Indian Ocean (MH370) Backscatter 30m 2017 (20170168C)

On behalf of Australia, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is 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. Bathymetric and Backscatter 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). This backscatter dataset allows exploration of the seafloor topography at a resolution of 30m across the search and transit areas of the Southern Indian Ocean. This dataset is not to be used for navigational purposes.Not to be used for navigational purposes