Sonar and underwater technology company EdgeTech, West Wareham, Mass., recently delivered an advanced multiphase sonar system to the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center (CCOM/JHC).
The 6205 MultiPhase Echo Sounder, installed on the UNH research vessel Gulf Surveyor, produces real-time, high-resolution 3-D sea floor maps. Meanwhile, the system also provides co-registered simultaneous dual-frequency side scan sonar imagery.
The Edge Tech multiphase technology allows users to collect wide swathe, wide angle, high-resolution bathymetry data, and complaint to IHO Special Order S-44. The coverage rate is at least twice that of a conventional multibeam echo sounder, and an order of magnitude faster than single-beam echo sounders. The result, the company said, “is an effective shallow water hydrographic survey tool that is simple to use and cost effective.”
The university’s CCOM/JHC center has a close affiliation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and will use the EdgeTech 6205 for research and education dedicated to the missions of hydrographic science and ocean mapping.
The system is carried on the 48’x17’x4’11” aluminum catamaran Gulf Surveyor, built and commissioned in January 2016 by All American Marine, Bellingham, Wash. Coast Guard-certified to carry up to 18 persons within 20 miles of shore, the vessel and EdgeTech 6205 will be used to teach students the fundamentals of ocean mapping course in the fall 2017 semester, and deployed in research activities throughout the year.
