SonarWiz Quarterly Highlights - 2016 Q2 Revision 1.0,7/22/2016 Chesapeake Technology, Inc. eMail: [email protected]Main Web site: http://www.chesapeaketech.com Support Web site: http://www.chestech-support.com 1605 W. El Camino Real, Suite 100 Mountain View, CA 94040 Tel: 650-967-2045 Fax: 650-450-9300
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Here are the highlights of SonarWiz enhancement for the 2016 Q2 (April, May, June 2016) .
Highlights Summary Table (blue items have companion graphics)
Section - Functional Category
Highlight Description
2.1 General Improvements
We've added a JSF file-type specific import option to allow users to scale the sensor depth, so that both positive and negative numbers can correctly be imported and applied.
2.2 Bathymetry post-processing
1. Added support for importing Lowrance Structure Scan 3D SL3 files for bathymetry.
2. Applanix SBET has new import options - we added the ability to see packet information, the navigation data in ASCII TXT format, and to see the NMEA message data inside the SBET file.
3. We've doubled your grid/contouring options now - the modern "gridding" dialog now supports import of external XYZ project data from any project, and will grid the data for you.
4. A third new feature is volumetric comparison of a grid and surface, or a pair of grids. This supports DREDGING volume calculations for estimating a DREDGING project, or volume between a pair of reflector layers in sub-bottom data.
2.3 Sub-bottom post-processing
1. Major changes in the way you import and view sub-bottom data were made to support data polarity import and palette choice. A companion DYK video helps explain this new feature:
2. SES file import got major help - now each header-value can be scaled to correct for hemisphere-coding of latitude/longitude data, which may not have been recorded according to the positive East/North, negative West/South standard.
3. SonarWiz can now import Lowrance SL2 and SL3 format sub-bottom files!
2.4 Real-time data acquisition
SonarWiz now supports recording and annotating a navigation data track, with log entries, specifically designed to help you comply with the Marine Mammal Protection Act of NOAA. Log your GPS location with notes about the species sighted, distance from vessel, and health of the animal.
2.5 Sidescan post-processing
Lowrance SL2 and SL3 format sidescan files may now be imported by SonarWiz. Use SonarWiz now to geolocate all your best fish-school finds (but don't tell anyone!)
2.6 Magnetometry post-processing
Our new external XYZ gridding option in the SonarWiz CTIGridProcessor supports 5 new algorithms including Natural Neighbor. This works especially well for spatially sparse data like magnetometer data.
NOTE: Blue highlights items listed above, are presented below with graphics.
2.1 General Enhancements affecting all functional categories
2.2 Bathymetry-specific Enhancements
2.2.1 New support for Lowrance Structure Scan 3D SL3 format bathymetry import
Lowrance, a relatively inexpensive sonar, has a new file format which can include sidescan, sub-bottom, and bathymetry data. Now you can use SonarWIz to import and post-process all 3 forms of data from the Lowrance SL3 file type.
The color-coded bathymetry data presented above shows red (shallow) data ranging from 4m deep, to blue (deepest) data at 15m depth or greater, in this port-area survey data set, volunteered fro sharing by the Clinton Marine Survey AB, of Sweden.
It is easy to show bathymetry data such as this in a 3D rendering in the CTI3DViewer, a standard utility in SonarWiz, available with any post-processing license. It is shown here as a bathymetry surface with Lowrance SL3 format sub-bottom beneath it:
2.2.2 New bathymetry gridding option: External XYZ data format
Previously, our gridding engine in SonarWiz could use data from your bathymetry project to create "grid"-computed bathymetry surfaces. Now several algorithms area avaialbelf ro grid computation, which allow external data, such as XYZ format from a different project, or survey, to be used to create a grid in your current project.
The grid dialog supports, among other variables:
2016_Q2_Highlights.rev1.pdf Chesapeake Technology, Inc. copyright 2016-2017
the ability to control grid cell size, and the algorithm by which adjacent or regional data are used to create the grid. An example of NaturalNeighbor grid algorithm is shown in section 2.6 for magnetometry external data.
2.2.3 New bathymetry gridding option: Volumetric Computations
Dredging is one good application example where SonarWiz users asked for the ability to compare 2 bathymetry surfaces, and compute a volume between them. Our chief scientist created new gridding options to support this. First select a grid, then choose volume calculator:
2016_Q2_Highlights.rev1.pdf Chesapeake Technology, Inc. copyright 2016-2017
Among your options next are to compute a grid - grid2 volume, or compare your grid to a "surface" level - an arbitrary depth you decide to use, for comparison. Here's an example of a grid compared to the depth level 6.5 meters:
The output report explains the results numbers:
2016_Q2_Highlights.rev1.pdf Chesapeake Technology, Inc. copyright 2016-2017
(partial report shown). The report also contains a volume section, explaining the cubic meters of, in this case, the grid data ABOVE (lower depth than) 6.5m in depth:
2016_Q2_Highlights.rev1.pdf Chesapeake Technology, Inc. copyright 2016-2017
2.3.1 New Seismic Data Polarity Choices for Import and Viewing
To support a more optimal display of positive and negative data in analog sub-bottom data recordings, SonarWiz was enhanced to show these data with a special set of bipolar color palettes. Now you specify at import time, the polarity (or unipolarity) of your data, and select a color palette optimized for your data type. Here's a summary table:
Using BIPOLAR import of analog sub-bottom data, choosing SEISMIC palette and "positive" display, you can see only positive data in BLUE:
2016_Q2_Highlights.rev1.pdf Chesapeake Technology, Inc. copyright 2016-2017
Using import data-type, and display polarity choices, can clarify the images for your geologic interpretation work. To learn more, please try this short tutorial video, which explains the new features:
are supported for Lowrance SB data, along with all the existing seismic post-processing options such as bottom-tracking, digital filtering, and image export.
2.4 Real-time Data Acquisition Enhancements - Event / Annotation Logging
SonarWiz now supports text-format event logging, with any real-time data acquisition license, even if no sonar data is being recorded.
2016_Q2_Highlights.rev1.pdf Chesapeake Technology, Inc. copyright 2016-2017
Just press "ADD LOGBOOK ENTRY" and SonarWiz captures your text into an editable file, as well as as well as the starting and ending date, time, and GPS position of your event. Note the type and count of your harbor seal sighting, and SonarWiz will record your dtae, time, and position for you automatically. This convenient new feature was requested by the Santa Cruz, CA branch of the USGS.
2016_Q2_Highlights.rev1.pdf Chesapeake Technology, Inc. copyright 2016-2017
The main enhancement, to SonarWiz sidescan post-processing, is the addition of SL2 and SL3 format import from Lowrance sonar surveys. Both file types MAY contain sidescan data, and if it was recorded, it imports into SonarWiz like this:
All the familiar operations of bottom-tracking, digital filtering, and image export work the same on Lowrance files now, as they do with other sidescan file types. Lowrance provides exceptional survey resolution for the cost.
2.6 Magnetometry Post-processing Enhancements
Gridding options just got better in SonarWiz, for magnetometry data! The gridding capability of accepting external XYZ data in our main gridding engine is new, and accepts any type of numerical data, but it has particular application in magnetometry data. The "Natural Neighbor" algorithm choice works especially well with sparse data like magnetometry.
SonarWiz can still do the familiar heat-map type grid/contour expot:
2016_Q2_Highlights.rev1.pdf Chesapeake Technology, Inc. copyright 2016-2017
where dense areas of color indication significant magnetic deflection. Now using the gridding engine which was initial created for bathymetry data, you can grid your magnetometry data using Natural Neighbir (or other) algorithm to get a magnetic deflection export view like this:
You can choose any bathymetry color palette and adjust the color scale range to suit your needs.