Features

• High area coverage rate; SHOALS scans at aircraft speeds, covering up to 70 km²/hr.
• High accuracy; meets IHO Order 1, position accuracy to within 1.5 m (depending on GPS).
• Fixed-width swaths independent of water depth, unlike multibeam echo sounders.
• Compact and self-contained; installs into any medium-sized helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft.
• Real-time data display of depth soundings and position.
• Operator control; Airborne operator can change pre-programmed survey parameters on the fly.
• Automated post-flight processing software with sophisticated manual editing tools.

Benefits

• Cost-effective in shallow water; collects dense data sets where acoustic surveying is least efficient.
• Maps extremely shallow water <5 m; no change in vertical accuracy or sounding density.
• Maps land and water in the same mission; simplifies coastal surveys by ensuring continuity through the shoreline in a single survey.
• Maps dangerous areas safely and thoroughly; airborne systems are immune to grounding hazards, shallows, shoal-infested waters, reefs, rocks, hidden subsurface objects or tidal flows.
• Flexible and rapid deployment; gets in and out quickly to take advantage of periodic and unpredictable access to areas cut off by harsh weather, poor water conditions, or features such as pack ice.
• Prompt damage assessment; maps quickly and thoroughly, generating a large volume of survey data that can be processed to produce damage assessments and dredging estimates, often the same day.
• Detects underwater objects; high-density coverage accurately targets objects as small as 2x2x2 m.
• Easy re-surveying; rapid deployment simplifies re-surveys of dynamic areas, to build up picture of processes over time.