Raw acoustic data collected by ship-borne EK60 echo sounder in Scotia Sea (Oct - Dec 2006) during the RRS James Clark Ross cruise JR161.

Acoustic backscatter data were collected on board the RRS James Clark Ross (cruise JR161) as part of the Discovery 2010 programme.

Data were collected using a Simrad EK60 echo sounder at 38, 120 and 200 kHz. The EK60 was run continuously from Stanley (Falkland Islands) to Signy (South Orkney Islands), then to South Georgia across the Scotia Sea in the austral spring (October - December) of 2006. Dedicated acoustic transects were also run at eight stations within these transects. The EK60 was calibrated prior to data collection on a previous cruise (JR159 on 13-14th October 2006). More information about the calibration can be found in the Cruise Report for JR159: https://www.bodc.ac.uk/data/information_and_inventories/cruise_inventory/report/jr152_jr159.pdf

The dataset comprises Simrad raw format files that have not undergone any processing or quality checking. The raw data files (Simrad .raw format) are stored by the Polar Data Centre (PDC) at BAS and are available upon request to [e-mail]. Each data file contains approximately 17 minutes' worth of data and is approximately 26 MB in size. Each data file contains raw ping data with associated GPS fixes and date/time.

JR161 was the first of three cruises which comprise the field studies of the British Antarctic Survey's (BAS) core science Discovery 2010 programme, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.