INFOMAR Seabed Survey Trackline

Survey tracklines delineate the line along which the vessel travelled as it was surveying. The vessel collects multibeam echosounder data (MBES) by emitting a fan of soundwaves and recording the reflected signal. The area of seabed ensonified is known as the footprint and the area surveyed along a transect is commonly called the swath. The size of the footprint depends on the depth: deeper areas will have a larger footprint than shallower areas. The central line of the swath is the trackline and so therefore, tracklines in shallower water will be closer together than those in deeper water.