A 1.Do poor weather conditions (e.g. high winds and high seas) have an influence on data collection?
The signal from the echo sounder will mostly likely be degraded due to
bubbles crossing the face of the transducer. Gross echo shapes may still be
evident and the bubbles will have the result of introducing noise which may mask
more subtle echo features. You may still see differences but loose the details.
As the amount of noise increases, you will loose consistency in the gross echo
shape at which point you are wasting your time collecting data.
High winds and high seas also result in significant pitch and roll on the
vessel. This will alter the shape of the echo and thus erroneously suggesting a
different class. One key to determining the extent of degradation in signal is
to compare the roll to the beam width of the transducer. Once the roll beyond
half to two-thirds of a beam width, the signal quality will be impacted. The
gross echo features may still be evident but the finer details may be lost.
Also, a different area of sea floor will be insonified. The impact of that will
depend on the variability of the seabed and the scale at which you are mapping.
A 2.What echo sounders can be used for seabed classification?
A complete listing of echo sounders can be found on our echo sounders page. If your echo sounder is not on this list, please contact us or fill out our online form.
A 3.How much power does the echo sounder need to transmit?
Typically between 100 and 500 Watts.
A 4.What is an appropritate transmit pulse duration?
Between 0.25 ms and 0.50 ms.
A 5.How fast can the echo sounder ping rate be?
It must not exceed 5 pings per second.
It is an inline passive device that reduces the incoming signals to levels that the electronics can handle.
