Comment on essd-2021-444

Abstract

Between 3rd February and 30th March 2021 the research icebreaker RV Polarstern conducted an extensive multidisciplinary research expedition across the southern Weddell Sea, Antarctica. During the Continental Shelf Multidisciplinary Flux Study (COSMUS) expedition (designated research expedition PS124) the Ocean Floor Observation and Bathymetry System (OFOBS) was deployed 20 times to collect high resolution seafloor image and acoustic data with a 26-megapixel resolution camera, HD (high definition) video camera, forward facing acoustic camera and multibeam side-scan system from heights of between 1.5 and 4.5 m above seafloor. To localise the collected data the OFOBS was equipped with a Posidonia transponder for ultra- short baseline position triangulation, an Inertial Navigation System (INS) and a seafloor tracking Dynamic Velocity Logger (DVL). The 20 deployments were made across contrasting areas of the Weddell Sea, Filchner Trough, Filchner Sill and Filchner Shelf. Here, we present the full image data set collected from across the various deployments, as well as raw side-scan data, and derived high resolution bathymetric maps produced from this acoustic data after the cruise. All images are available from: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.936205 (Purser et al., 2021b) and https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.932827 (Purser et al., 2021c). Acoustic data for all deployments is also available from PANGAEA, with the raw side scan data available at: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.939322 (Hehemann et al., 2021b), forward facing acoustic camera data at: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.939341 (Purser et al., 2021a). Seafloor topographic maps derived from the side scan data are available at: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.939087 (Hehemann et al., 2021a).