D-Day survey gives hydro a wider audience

Mulberry B is one of two artificial harbours that played a pivotal role in supplying the Allied forces during the D-Day landings off the coast of Normandy as they fought to liberate France in 1944.

The mobile, prefabricated harbours consisted of 600,000 tons of concrete with 33 jetties and 10 miles of floating roadways. Mulberry A, located off Omaha beach, was severely damaged in a storm shortly after construction, but Mulberry B, also known as Port Winston, continued to effectively supply the British and Canadian invasion forces throughout 1944.

CARIS, a global developer of geospatial software, is supplying its bathymetric processing software, HIPS and SIPS, as well as its analysis and compilation software, BASE Editor, along with two dedicated computers to help do the job.

“UKHO has had a long association with CARIS HIPS and the CARIS Bathy Data Base and the support of CARIS to this project is very much appreciated, said Chris Howlett, head of the UKHO Seabed Data Centre. “Using CARIS HIPS to process the gathered data and then storing it within Bathy DataBASE will help ensure that we get the most from the data and that it remains discoverable in the future.”

Trish Groves, CARIS’ account manager for the United Kingdom said, “We are very excited to be involved. To rediscover and highlight part of our heritage is inspiring and helps promote hydrography to a wider audience.”

The CARIS Ping-to-Chart product line delivers an integrated software solution for the entire workflow of hydrographic information from the echosounder ping through to the production and distribution of a chart. CARIS products are used by hydrographic offices, military agencies, survey contractors, ports and harbours, municipalities, land administrators and academia among others.

For more information on the Mulberry Survey visit: www.mulberrysurvey.co.uk