Permanently installed and portable hydrographic instruments ordered.
Kongsberg Maritime will support the Spanish Hydrographic Institute in expanding its survey capabilities during the first part of 2012 following official equipment acceptance, which took place 20th December 2011.The leading instrument developer will supply its sophisticated EM2040 1ºx1º multibeam with Seapath 300+ position reference system for installation on H/V Antares, in addition to providing flexible portable shallow water systems based on two Geoswath Plus Compact echosounders.
H/V Antares is already equipped with a Kongsberg Maritime EA600 single beam echo sounder. The new EM2040 will increase the vessel’s survey capability up to 400 meters depth and offer full coverage of the seabed. Installation will take place during the next dry docking, which is planned for end of February 2012.
The Geoswath Plus Compact based portable systems have been chosen to extend the institute’s very shallow water requirements. The systems are already on board R/V Hespérides which is undertaking a two-month hydrographic campaign in Antarctica that started just after Christmas. Geoswath Plus is an ideal system for survey in Antarctica as its wide swath enables high productivity, regardless of conditions.
Once the Antarctica survey is completed, the systems will be ready for deployment on any of the seven hydrographic boats that the Institute has on board its large survey vessels. A base mounting arrangement will be installed on each boat in order to allow quick installation of the systems, which consist of poles carrying the Geoswath Plus transducer, Kongsberg Seatex motion reference unit (MRU 5) and an R320 dGPS Receiver.
The final part of the contract is the delivery of a new EM3002, which will offer excellent shallow water survey capabilities aboard the H/V Tofiño, following installation during the next dry docking, which is planned for Spring 2012. The new system will be installed on the same blister as the existing KONGSBERG EM300 medium water system aboard H/V Tofiño, which was installed in 2005.