Near-bottom processed sidescan sonar Deep Tow data from the East Pacific Rise at 17°S and 19°S (1998)

Sidescan sonar data collected using the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) deeply towed instrument package (Deep Tow) at 17°S and 19°S, East Pacific Rise, during cruise PANR06MV (May 1998, chief scientist Jeff Gee). The Deep Tow platform carried a 110 kHz sidescan sonar. The binary data files were originally recorded in SIO fish6 format, and have been converted to the MB-System-compatible .mb71 format (mbio format 71) for processing. Processing steps included translating time-based sonar data into backscatter records, and laid out into a regular array of pixels that were projected onto a flat seafloor model (swath bathymetric data were not collected). Data were corrected for the variation of amplitude with grazing angle, filtered with a Gaussian mean low-pass filter (across track /along track dimensions of 11 and 3 pixels, respectively), and mosaiced. Processing carried out with MB-System release 5.7.6. The data set was generated as part of the projects called Short Wavelength Magnetic Variations within the Central Anomaly on the Southern EPR, and Along-Axis Continuity of Oceanic Detachment Faults. Funding was provided through NSF awards OCE97-12027, OCE14-59387 and OCE18-39727.