Cruise ID: R/V David Packard
Multibeam System: EM304 MKII
Dates: February 15-17, 2024
- R/V David Packard undertook a series of sea acceptance trials (SAT) for the ship’s new Seapath 380 / MGC-R3 navigation system and EM304 MKII multibeam echosounder in the vicinity of Vigo, Spain between 15-17 Feb 2024; a combination of contract SAT activities were completed by Kongsberg for Freire Shipyard in tandem with independent pre-SAT and SAT assessments conducted by Johnson and Jerram for MBARI
- Two important factors will impact performance of this particular EM304 MKII:
- The high voltage power supply has been reduced by Kongsberg from 130V to 105V to avoid damages observed with other EM304 MKII and EM124 systems; the impacts on performance are not clear at this point, and these concerns have been noted in the signed SAT documents with Kongsberg
- The ice windows cause acoustic attenuation during TX and RX that will reduce the coverage and may potentially reduce swath quality; these are expected impacts from this design
- Pre-testing procedures included a comprehensive review of the the EM304 MKII and Seapath system geometry using a 2023 ANKO vessel survey report (Rev. 1.2; see System Geometry)
- The geometry and configuration review by Johnson and Jerram revealed a few typos in the ANKO report and ambiguity in the antenna phase center heights; as of the Vigo SAT, a final draft of the report was pending with a small number of corrections to the offset summary tables and descriptions of the antenna survey location
- Upon clarification of these points, the ANKO survey report was found to be extremely high quality and enabled direct translation to sensor configurations; a final antenna calibration and joint review of pre-SAT configuration were conducted dockside in Vigo on Feb 14, with all parties (Kongsberg, Johnson, Jerram) in agreement
Attached Documents
Report:
Related Information
- Cruise Data at R2R (not available)