Open Backscatter Toolchain (OpenBST) - A Community-Vetted Workflow for Backscatter Processing

Authors

Michael James Smith, University of New Hampshire, Durham
Giuseppe Masetti, University of New Hampshire, Durham
Larry A. Mayer, University of New Hampshire, DurhamFollow
Mashkoor A. Malik, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Jean-Marie Augustin, Unité Navires et Systèmes Embarqués Ifremer
Cyrille Poncelet, Unité Navires et Systèmes Embarqués Ifremer
Iain Parnum, Curtin University

Abstract

Seafloor acoustic backscatter collected by multibeam echosounders (MBES) is routinely used to generate products such as backscatter mosaics and angular response curves. However, the usability of backscatter products has been hindered by a lack of consistent outputs that may be the result of differences in sonar calibration, data collection and processing. The Open BackScatter Toolchain (OpenBST) project aims to mitigate discrepancies that arise from existing processing workflows by providing open-source, community-vetted processing algorithms for backscatter data. In this work, an example of the OpenBST approach was applied to the backscatter processing workflow for a popular multibeam echosounder, using a reference dataset recently collected in Portsmouth Harbor, NH. At each processing step, intermediate outputs are produced (and compared) using commonly adopted methodologies. Finally, an analysis of the relative relevance of selecting those methodologies at the various intermediate steps is presented.

Publication Date

2-27-2020

Journal Title

2020 Canadian Hydrographic Conference, Quebec City, Quebec, February 25-27

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Recommended Citation

M. Smith, Masetti, G., Mayer, L. A., Malik, M. A., Augustin, J. - M., Poncelet, C., and Parnum, I., “Open Backscatter Toolchain (OpenBST) - A Community-Vetted Workflow for Backscatter Processing”, 2020 Canadian Hydrographic Conference. Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, 2020.