[Acoustics] Bathy S'Ware

[J. Josh Gilbert]

Regarding Bathymetry / Flow Mapping Progrram.
The progammer should be applauded for his effort to prepare a tool to aid
in our  work.

I am not raining on his parade, I just have some questions and  comments.


There are several very good bathymetric survey programs on the market that
recognize virtually all (say 95%) of the collection equipment available
(position, depth, heave/pitch/roll, etc.).
I have found that USGS  offices uses HYPACK quite a bit, but D. Mueller
would be the most knowledgeable on what is used. It is very nice with good
commercial software to have a world of other users to help with problems,
spur development, etc.  The software outputs to (virtually all) output
devices, will annotate hardcopy devices, etc. etc.     I don't want to blow
HYPACKS horn, they are just a  common single beam system. They will collect
an adcp stream, but cannot utilize it like RDI et. al.,  I am told that
they developed that feature from user requests.   The multi-beam product
they make, HYSWEEP, is a real time display program. Depending on your
multibeam unit, you can 'sweep' strips of the bed that are as wide as up to
60 to 70 %  of the depth.  I have used both products and found them to be
very useful.  With some of the 'sweep' products, you can have your bed map
plotted before you make a 30 minute ride to the boat landing. The user
support is not as 'accomodating' as they were in the early years (to
develop new features or interfaces) but they are still good.

 There are others doing the same, Trimble , Simrad (specific), Simtech, and
others.

My question is, what facets of these types of operations are you wanting,
that are not available in commercial products ?   I believe they now sell
for less than $4k.  That may be a gov't price, but the competition has
really grown and they had to reduce their older  price to be competitive.

I know there have been thoughts on developing a 'mini-sweep' bathy program
for the ADCP.  That is fine and good, but the machine was not built for
that. Other equipment built for bathy work will perform much better. If you
want to collect the bathy with the flow data you would just have to use
gear with a wide enough freq difference to minimize interference.

As I re-read this, it really sounds kinda bad.......like I'm slammin this
work and selling commercial products.  That is certainly NOT the case.  I
tried to 'build my own system', and data stream collection and sync with
time-tags was not the problem. The real time display was my weak link.
If you develop the system and tie it up in a nice package, I am sure you
will find may people that want to give it a try. If I can 'mini-sweep' with
a program from a fellow USGS user, I will be ready to give it a try.  My
question is still the same though...... what puts this effort head and
shoulders above the commercial stuff that is already developed, proofed,
and has a broad user/user-help base ?

Still your brother where water can be thicker than blood..
Sincerely,
Josh Gilbert