Product catalogue
The Search for Flight MH370 – Phase 2 5 m resolution sonar images for data visualisation
On behalf of Australia, and in support of the Malaysian accident investigation, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) led 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 marine surveys, which were undertaken to provide a detailed map of the sea floor topography and to aid navigation during the underwater search.
This dataset comprises Side Scan Sonar (SSS), Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) and multibeam sonar backscatter data at 5 m resolution. Data was collected during Phase 2 marine surveys conducted by the Governments of Australia, Malaysia and the People’s Republic of China between September 2014 to January 2017. The data was acquired by Echo Surveyor 7 (Kongsberg AUV Hugin 1000), Edgetech 2400 Deep Tow and SLH PS-60 Synthetic Aperture Sonar Deep Tow deployed from the following vessels: Fugro Supporter, Fugro Equator, Fugro Discovery, Havila Harmony, Dong Hai Jiu 101 and Go Phoenix.
All material and data from this access point is subject to copyright. Please note the creative commons copyright notice and relating to the re-use of this material. Geoscience Australia's preference is that you attribute the datasets (and any material sourced from it) using the following wording: Source: Governments of Australia, Malaysia and the People's Republic of China, 2018. MH370 Phase 2 data.
We honour the memory of those who have lost their lives and acknowledge the enormous loss felt by their loved ones.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2018-05-31T00:00:00
- Date (Publication)
- 2018-09-17T05:48:39
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/120969
- Citation identifier
- Digital Object Identifier/http://dx.doi.org/10.4225/25/5b0cd3b139def
- Cited responsible party
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
- Purpose
-
The MH370 Phase 2 dataset provides a 5 m resolution overview of the sonar data (Side Scan Sonar, Synthetic Aperture Sonar and multibeam sonar backscatter) acquired during the operational search. It aims to be more accessible and user friendly to a non-scientific user than the supplied raw and processed data. It is recommended that detailed interrogations make use of the 'raw and processed' data, which is at a higher resolution and without obscured overlap regions.
- Point of contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
- Spatial representation type
Spatial resolution
- Level of detail
-
5m
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent
Temporal extent
- Time period
- 2014-09-01 2017-01-31
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Not planned
- Keywords
-
-
MH370
-
marine
-
sidescan sonar
-
backscatter
-
- Product
-
-
Published_External
-
Resource constraints
- Title
-
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
-
CC-BY
- Edition
-
4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- License
Resource constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
- Distribution format
-
-
html
-
- OnLine resource
-
Explore and download the data via Ausseabed Marine Data Portal
Explore and download the data via Ausseabed Marine Data Portal
- OnLine resource
-
Explore GA’s ArcGIS Story Map
Explore GA’s ArcGIS Story Map
Resource lineage
- Statement
-
The MH370 Phase 2 5 m resolution dataset provides an overview of the sonar data (Side Scan Sonar, Synthetic Aperture Sonar and multibeam sonar backscatter) acquired during the operational search. This product aims to be more accessible and user friendly to a non-scientific user than the supplied raw and processed data.
The dataset is split into four different layers (Fugro Deep Tow, Fugro Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, Go Phoenix and Dong Hai Jiu 101) according to the system used to acquire the data. There is considerable overlap between these different layers, and within the layers, which aims to show features from various perspectives.
The 5 m mosaicked dataset was collated from original line by line data supplied by third party organisations throughout the duration of the search in .gdb, .png and .tif formats. Esri mosaicking tools were used to produce the standardised GeoTiff output. There was no preferences given for overlapping data within each of the layers. All data was reprojected (from either UTM Zone 45S or UTM Zone 46S) to WGS84, and tiled for ease of post-processing and delivery. As a whole, the four layers are designed to sit within a web service in the following order from bottom to top: Dong Hai Jiu 101, Go Phoenix, Fugro Deep Tow, and Fugro Autonomous Underwater Vehicle.
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/7c59b965-ec36-40dd-95da-ba54eb7cd777
- Title
-
GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Dataset
- Name
-
The Search for Flight MH370 – Phase 2 5 m resolution sonar images for data visualisation
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/120969
- Date info (Creation)
- 2025-03-06T04:02:44.879Z
- Date info (Creation)
- 2018-05-22T23:04:26
- Date info (Revision)
- 2025-03-06T04:04:18.922Z
Metadata standard
- Title
-
AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
-
ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
-
ISO 19115-3
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014
- Edition
-
Version 2.0, September 2018
- Citation identifier
- https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551