Bathymetric Surveying with GPS and Heave, Pitch, and Roll Compensation

Abstract

Field and laboratory tests of a shipborne hydrographic survey system were conducted. The system consists of two 12-channel GPS receivers (one onboard, one fixed on shore), a digital acoustic fathometer, and a digital heave-pitch-roll (HPR) recorder. Laboratory tests of the HPR recorder and fathometer are documented. Results of field tests of the isolated GPS system and then of the entire suite of instruments are presented. A method for data reduction is developed to account for vertical errors introduced by roll and pitch of the survey vessel, which can be substantial (decimeters). The GPS vertical position data are found to be reliable to 2–3 cm and the fathometer to 5 cm in the laboratory. The field test of the complete system in shallow water (<2 m) indicates absolute vertical accuracy of 10–20 cm. Much of this error is attributed to the fathometer. Careful surveying and equipment setup can minimize systematic error and yield much smaller average errors.