Abstract
Seafloor backscatter mosaics are now routinely produced from multibeam echosounder data and used in a wide range of marine applications. However, large differences (>5 dB) can often be observed between the mosaics produced by different software packages processing the same dataset. Without transparency of the processing pipeline and the lack of consistency between software packages raises concerns about the validity of the final results. To recognize the source(s) of inconsistency between software, it is necessary to understand at which stage(s) of the data processing chain the differences become substantial. To this end, willing commercial and academic software developers were invited to generate intermediate processed backscatter results from a common dataset, for cross-comparison. The first phase of the study requested intermediate processed results consisting of two stages of the processing sequence: the one-value-per-beam level obtained after reading the raw data and the level obtained after radiometric corrections but before compensation of the angular dependence. Both of these intermediate results showed large differences between software solutions. This study explores the possible reasons for these differences and highlights the need for collaborative efforts between software developers and their users to improve the consistency and transparency of the backscatter data processing sequence.
Highlights
Commercial Multibeam echosounders (MBES) were designed in the 1970’s [1] for the purpose of bathymetry data acquisition, but it is only in the past two decades that software packages generally became available to process seafloor backscatter data
The quality control of the data and final products have important regulatory and legal implications. It is incumbent upon government agencies and scientific institutions to recognize that software packages used to process the raw data into useable products impact the interpretation of these products and should be accredited for quality level [30]
There is a lot to gain for all the parties involved, to develop quality control approaches for the algorithms, and reach a level of standardization sufficient to merge the products from different software packages
Summary
Commercial Multibeam echosounders (MBES) were designed in the 1970’s [1] for the purpose of bathymetry data acquisition, but it is only in the past two decades that software packages generally became available to process seafloor backscatter data (backscatter). Backscatter is collected by a broad range of users for a variety of applications, including scientists and resource managers to assess and quantify seafloor resources (sediment, geology, habitats, etc.), by hydrographic and military agencies to determine seafloor type, and by coastal zone managers for infrastructure planning. Most of these end-users rely on commercial software for data processing [8]. Due to their commercial nature, these software packages are often closed source, and very limited information is available about their proprietary data processing routines and algorithms
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