The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project is set to welcome FarSounder, a leading developer of 3D forward looking sonar (FLS) technology.
The partnership will see FarSounder collaborate as part of Seabed 2030, which aims to map the entire world’s seabed in order to advance the collective understanding of the ocean floor.
The project – Enabling Expanded Crowdsourced Bathymetry Contributions With High-Quality Metadata via Commercially Sustainable Incentives to Contributors – will allow for data sharing with others across the FarSounder customer fleet and with Seabed 2030.
The International Hydrographic Organization’s (IHO) Data Centre for Digital Bathymetry (DCDB) will facilitate the data sharing, with its archives of over 30 terabytes of oceanic depth soundings serving as the long-term archive for Seabed 2030.
Seabed 2030 is a collaborative project between The Nippon Foundation and the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO), which seeks to inspire the complete mapping of the world’s oceans by 2030, and to compile all the data into the freely available GEBCO Ocean Map.
The Project is formally endorsed as a Decade Action of the UN Ocean Decade. GEBCO is a joint programme of the IHO and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), and is the only organization with a mandate to map the entire ocean floor.
All data collected and shared with the Seabed 2030 project is included in the free and publicly available GEBCO global grid.
Coinciding with the partnership, FarSounder are set to develop a cloud-based service to share survey data collected by FarSounder customers.
This will be funded by a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant awarded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to FarSounder.
FarSounder CEO Matthew Zimmerman stated; “Our commitment to contributing high-resolution data to the IHO’s DCDB aligns seamlessly with Seabed 2030’s mission of achieving a complete map of the entire ocean floor.
“By streamlining the transfer of data from customers to the DCDB we hope to encourage broader participation, inviting more individuals to actively contribute to bridging the gaps in our understanding of the ocean.”
Seabed 2030 Project Director Jamie McMichael-Phillips added; “It’s a pleasure to welcome FarSounder on board as an official partner.
“FarSounder plays a central role in championing crowdsourced bathymetry – which is essential to Seabed 2030. We look forward to working together, and look forward to following the company’s journey as it embarks upon its exciting new project.”
