Product catalogue
CSIRO Multibeam Backscatter Mapping of the Continental Shelf Backscatter 75m 2013 (20130147C)
A multi-beam sonar (MBS) has been used to map Australia's continental margin seabed from the marine national facility vessel Southern Surveyor on opportunistic transit and research voyages since 2004 with 0.35 M km2 mapped. The MBS data are used to infer key ecological features based on bathymetry (e.g. seamounts, canyons, terraces, banks and deep reefs) and backscatter data for ecological hard (consolidated, e.g. rock for attachment of fauna) and soft (unconsolidated, e.g. mud for burrowing fauna) substrate. Seabed consolidation inference is consistent with a seabed scattering model. To consistently infer ecological significant hard and soft substrate from the backscatter data requires minimisation of errors due to changing absorption (̃2 dB) with temperature and depth, calibration drift, changes in pulse length and estimates of area insonified due to seabed slope (<8 dB). Area insonified corrections were required for both across and along-ship slopes. Highest corrections were needed for along-ship slopes in canyon regions and large incidence angles ( >60°). A data collection and processing framework is described that works towards a national backscatter mapping program for environmental seabed mapping. Data collected and automated processing for depth, sound absorption and area insonified at level 2 of a possible 5 level data processing hierarchy is available. The final data was gridded at 75m resolution.
Not to be used for navigational purposes
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2013-06-30
- Date (Publication)
- 2026-03-24T01:25:44.042Z
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/151014
Identifier
- Cited responsible party
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Publisher Geoscience Australia
- Purpose
-
To derive seabed information for the purpose of supporting the sustainable use of our marine environment and jurisdiction; strengthening our resilience to natural hazards and enabling location-based decisions and actions through best practice digital mapping, Earth observations and precise positioning.
- Status
- Completed
- Point of contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Resource provider Place and Communities Division
External Contact Point of contact Pham, Q.
Internal Contact Custodian Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Owner Commonwealth of Australia (CSIRO)
Voice Collaborator CSIRO Marine National Facility
- Spatial representation type
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent
))
Vertical element
- Minimum value
- -70
- Maximum value
- 7
Identifier
- Code
- 5715
- Codespace
-
EPSG
- Version
-
12
- Description
-
mean sea level depth (EPSG:5715)
- Maintenance and update frequency
- As needed
Resource format
- Title
-
Product data repository: Various Formats
- Protocol
-
FILE:DATA-DIRECTORY
- Name of the resource
-
Data Store directory containing the digital product files
- Description
-
Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes
- Project
-
-
AusSeabed
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Resourcing Australia's Prosperity
-
- Keywords
-
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Marine
-
- Keywords
-
-
Backscatter
-
- Keywords
-
-
Multibeam
-
- Keywords
-
-
Oceans
-
- Keywords
-
-
Echo Multiplier (EM300)
-
- Keywords
-
-
Australia-wide geoscience data
-
- Keywords
-
-
Offshore Mapping
-
- Keywords
-
-
Bathymetry
-
- Keywords
-
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Backscatter
-
- Keywords
-
-
Pacific Ocean
-
- Keywords
-
-
South Pacific Ocean
-
- Keywords
-
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Tasman Sea
-
- Keywords
-
-
Torres Strait
-
- Keywords
-
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Bass Strait (Great Australian Bight)
-
- Keywords
-
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Coral Sea
-
- Keywords
-
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Great Australian Bight
-
- Keywords
-
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Gulf of Carpentaria
-
- Keywords
-
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Gulf of Guinea
-
- Keywords
-
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Indian Ocean
-
- Keywords
-
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Java Sea (East Indian Archipelago)
-
- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
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EARTH SCIENCES
-
- Keywords
-
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Published_External
-
Resource constraints
- Title
-
Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International
- Alternate title
-
CC BY
- Edition
-
4.0
- Addressee
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details User Any
- Use constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
-
(c) Commonwealth of Australia (CSIRO) 2026
Resource constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Classification system
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- OnLine resource
-
CSIRO Multibeam Backscatter Mapping of the Continental Shelf Backscatter 2013 (zip) [66.5 MB]
CSIRO Multibeam Backscatter Mapping of the Continental Shelf Backscatter 2013 (zip) [66.5 MB]
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
Resource lineage
- Statement
-
The source surveys are identified in the attached spreadsheet and the procoessing steps are identified in the following reference: Kloser, R.J. Keith G., Seabed Multi-beam Backscatter Mapping of the Australian Continental Margin, Acoustics Australia Vol 4 No. 1 p65 ( https://www.acoustics.asn.au/journal/Vol41No1.pdf)
Reference System Information
Identifier
- Code
- 4326
- Codespace
-
EPSG
- Version
-
12
- Description
-
WGS 84 (EPSG:4326)
- Hierarchy level
- Collection hardware
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/2930dc96-3b5f-45e9-b22b-6ad5c7746f10
- Title
-
GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Owner Pham, Q.
Internal Contact Point of contact Pham, Q.
Internal Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Dataset
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/151014
- Metadata linkage
-
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/api/records/2930dc96-3b5f-45e9-b22b-6ad5c7746f10
- Date info (Creation)
- 2026-03-25T00:11:06.98Z
- Date info (Creation)
- 2026-03-24T03:39:44.97Z
- Date info (Creation)
- 2026-03-18T23:30:24.214Z
- Date info (Revision)
- 2026-06-21T22:27:41.665Z
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