MH370 Search Phase 1 Raw and Processed datasets

On behalf of Australia, and in support of the Malaysian accident investigation, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) was leading search operations for missing Malaysian airlines flight MH370 in the Southern Indian Ocean. Geoscience Australia provided advice, expertise and support to the ATSB to facilitate bathymetric surveys, which were undertaken to provide a detailed map of the sea floor topography to aid navigation during the underwater search. Prior to the bathymetric survey, very little was known about the sea floor in the MH370 search area, as few marine surveys have taken place in the area. Existing maps of the sea floor were coarse, having been derived from satellites and only providing a general indication of water depth. Before the underwater search for MH370 could begin, it was necessary to accurately map the sea floor to ensure that the search is undertaken safely and effectively. Bathymetry survey vessels spent months at sea, scanning the sea floor with multibeam sonar to gather detailed, high-resolution data. This collation of datasets contains the raw and processed data acquired during Phase 1 of the search for MH370. Bathymetric data was acquired by multibeam sonar mounted on the hull of multiple vessels (GA survey reference: GA-4421, GA-4422 & GA-4430). Bathymetric surveys were conducted from June 2014 to February 2017, collecting over 710,000 square kilometres of data in the search area and along transit lines (to and from the search area).The raw and processed datasets were acquired from Fugro Equator, Zhu Kehzen, Fugro Supporter between June 2014 and February 2017.