All beams are stabilised for pitch and roll movements by electronic steering of both transmit and receive elements.

Improved resolution is achieved via dynamic focussing of received beams while swathe coverage with one sonar head can reach 130infinity and with a second head, 200infinity. A complete system runs on standard operational software such as SIS, Windows or Linux and is also compatible with PC's using alternative software suites from, among others, QPS, Coastal Oceanographics, EIVA and Thales GeoSolutions.

Fansweep 30 Coastal, the first of a new series from Atlas Hydrographic, is designed for use at depths down to 600m.

Operating between 100 and 200kHz with broadband frequency coverage depending on water depth and conditions, it additionally features simultaneous multi-ping technology for concurrent transmission of multiple steered pings in a water column. This, says the company, ensures significant increases in seabed ensonification while virtually eliminating shadowing and permitting increased survey rates in exacting sea states.

Other main features include High Order Beam-forming (HOB) which extends conventional beam-forming techniques to provide consistent, high-resolution delineation of bottoms across a particularly wide swath, so increasing data quality and survey outputs. Support functions comprise an intuitive operator interface via an integral Hydrographic Processing Suite (HPS) incorporating 2D/3D bathymetry, feature detection and bottom type classification, water column analysis and continuous calculation of total propagated error. An extensive range of management planning and operating options is also included.