New Chesapeake Technology Bathy Processor Engine

Chesapeake Technology (CTI, USA) has released its new processor engine specifically designed for high-volume interferometric sidescan sonar and shallow-water multibeam data. CTI has also enhanced import options for sidescan sonar and magnetometer data and made more than 30 customer- and manufacturer-driven enhancements throughout the product. The new bathymetric processing engine has been designed to minimise the manual labour required to process and visualise high-volume shallow water sounding data. Vessel configuration is made easier with new default configurations for all supported sensors, and enhanced visuals to verify sensor placement. Customisable data processing profiles automate the application of auxiliary data, setup data... (read more)

2015-02-02 10:42:22

Ixsea Oceano Wins ISO 9001:2000

Ixsea Oceano has been awarded ISO 9001:2000 certification by BVQI (Bureau Veritas Quality International). The certification includes engineering, sale, manufacturing and support for all Ixsea Oceano product lines (inertial navigation systems, gyrocompasses, acoustic releases, magnetometers, acoustic positioning systems) at their main plants in Brest and Marly- le-Roi. An internal quality system was already in place for engineering and production. (read more)

2004-02-02 12:00:00

National Park Underwater Research

The Virgin Islands National Park in St. John has purchased a magnetometer and towed camera to assist with their marine research. In 1962 Congress significantly expanded the boundaries of the park to include more than five thousand acres of underwater terrain. The park service is very concerned about the environmental impact of overfishing, encroachment of exotic marine plants, and sediment runoff. A field station has been established, headquartered at the Biosphere Reserve Center in the national park on St. John, to investigate changes in the marine ecosystem and to determine their cause. The research is a cooperative effort between... (read more)

2007-10-11 10:18:16

Sonars and Magnotometers Assist in Asia

LPK Geomatic Services Company in Vietnam is using Fishers SSS-100K/600K dual-frequency side scan sonar and Proton 4 magnetometer. LPK has been involved in some of the countryï¿½s major marine construction works such as the Dai Ninh Hydo Power Station, Can Tho Bridge, HoChiminh City gas pipeline, and the port of Hiep Phuoc. Managing director Truong An Phong says the side scan and magnetometer have been "very valuable" in these projects. "The sonar provides us with detailed images of the sea floor and the magnetometer shows us exactly where pipelines are located under the ocean bottom. We can store files... (read more)

2009-01-07 02:17:19

Magnetometers Help Police And Utilities

Today, there is a pressing need to accurately map the location of these lines to ensure they are not damaged by dredging, dropped anchors, and marine construction operations. With a large number of these pipelines decades old, there is also an urgent need to examine their condition and perform a thorough inspection. A magnetometer, a super sensitive metal detector that can locate iron and steel objects at ranges in the hundreds of feet, could be solving the problem. Oil and utility companies have been laying pipelines under the ocean for many years. Before the introduction of GPS, marking their... (read more)

2008-05-23 08:56:31

INSTALL Hosts Geosoft Oasis Montaj UXO Survey Course

At its academy in Naples, INSTALL (Italy) hosted a complete 4-day course on the Oasis Montaj software, in which all the aspects of the processing of data acquired from a magnetometer, mainly from UXO survey jobs, were examined. The class was taught by Geosoft-certified instructors who illustrated the various features of the Oasis Montaj software to the INSTALL personnel. A well-trained, specialised and skilled workforce is the key factor that determines the company’s present success and its future. (read more)

2016-06-17 10:11:34

MAGIS for Geothermal Application

Guadeloupe Archipelago in French West Indies

For a long time magnetic surveys have been under-used because of their limited usefulness. In recent years technology has advanced considerably and magnetic recording can now be performed simultaneously with other geophysical data acquisition, even though the survey has not been specifically designed for magnetic acquisition. Magnetometers can adapt easily to a large variety of survey configurations (high speed, irregular survey lines path) and still produce high-resolution results. A marine survey was carried out off the western side of the Guadeloupe archipelago (French West Indies) in November 2003 by the BRGM (French Geological Survey). The Guadeloupe Archipelago is composed of... (read more)

2008-01-01 01:00:00

The Search for Vasco da Gama’s Lost Ships

Esmeralda and São Pedro

Two Portuguese ships from Vasco da Gama’s second voyage to India, which were left behind in the Gulf of Aden to disrupt maritime trade through the Red Sea, were wrecked during a storm in 1503 off the coast of Al Hallaniyah Island, Oman. The remains of at least one of the ships were found in 1998, prompting a search for the second ship to be undertaken in 2013. The geophysical survey was complicated by environmental conditions, but it succeeded in locating all cultural heritage material in the bay. The Portuguese ships that were the target of this research, and the ensuing... (read more)

2017-03-22 10:53:49

Le Griffon Remains Found

Steven Libert, president of the Great Lakes Exploration Group, has announced that he has located what he believes to be the remains of Le Griffon, the first European ship to have sailed the upper Great Lakes. The 45-ton barque carrying 7 cannons was built by the legendary French explorer Rene-Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle who was attempting to establish a Northwest Passage through Canada. La Salle wanted to provide a faster way to connect France with its trading partners in the Far East and Le Griffon was to be a vital link in the route between Niagra and Illinois.... (read more)

2014-07-04 12:00:00

Ocean Robots Make Subsea Cable Surveys Faster and Cheaper

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) can perform subsea cable surveys faster and more economically than ships with towed instruments, according to a recent study of researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). “AUVs can cut down on ship costs and weather delays while reducing the time required to gather the data operators need to assess their underwater infrastructure", said Anthony Kirincich, a physical oceanographer at WHOI. Subsea Cable System WHOI researchers deployed an AUV to survey a subsea cable system in Buzzards Bay that links Martha’s Vineyard, an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, to grid power from the mainland. Buzzards Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent... (read more)

2019-07-30 10:07:58