Science Centres: Oceans

Backscatter workshop a success

The workshop had a strong practical component. Participants from a range of agencies had the chance to use the latest advanced backscatter processing software (SonarScope) developed at IFREMER.

It was an intensive day. On 9 November, about 35 people attended a workshop on processing and use of sonar backscatter for advanced seafloor mapping at NIWA’s Greta Point campus. The workshop was led by Xavier Lurton and Jean-Marie Augustin, experts in acoustics and signal processing from IFREMER, the French oceanographic research agency.

While visiting NIWA, Dr Lurton and Mr Augustin worked with our marine geology group on a number of projects, including multibeam backscatter data analysis for the Cook Strait.