- Mapping the Seafloor:
- Software for the Processing and Display
- of Swath Sonar Data
-
- David
W. Caress (1,2) and Dale
N. Chayes (2)
- 1. Monterey Bay Aquarium
Research Institute
- 2. Lamont-Doherty
Earth Observatory
- of Columbia University
- Introduction
MB-System is an open source software package for the processing and
display of bathymetry and backscatter imagery data derived from
multibeam, interferometry, and sidescan sonars. The source code for
MB-System is freely available (for free) by anonymous ftp (including
"point and click" access through these web pages). A complete
description is provided in web pages accessed through links below.
- MB-System was originally developed at the Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory of Columbia University (L-DEO) and is now a collaborative
effort between the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and
L-DEO. The National Science Foundation has provided the primary support
for MB-System development since 1993. The Packard Foundation has
provided significant support through MBARI since 1998. Additional
support has derived from SeaBeam Instruments (1994-1997), NOAA
(2002-2004), and others.
- Recent Announcements
- MB-System 5.1.0 Now Available
(November 27, 2006)
NEW!!!
- This is now the current release of MB-System.
- For more information read the MB-System 5.1.0
Release Notes and README
file.
- We thank all of the MB-System users who have provided
comments, corrections, bug reports, and data samples.
- MB-System NSF Proposal Funded (July 26, 2006)
- The Marine Geology and Geophysics Program of the NSF has
approved our request for another five years of funding for MB-System
development and support.
- We thank all of the MB-System users who provided letters of
support for inclusion in this proposal. Your time and effort are
appreciated!!
- The proposal can be read here
- Not So Recent Announcements
- Update to MB-System Cookbook Now Available
(January 14, 2006)
- We are developing an MB-System Cookbook to provide tutorial
style documentation for MB-System Version 5. An updated
draft of this cookbook by Val Schmidt, Dale Chayes, and David Caress is
being made available here along with the data samples used to
illustrate the use of our software (see
links below).
- First Visualization-Aided MB-System Tool Released
(February 20, 2005)
- MB-System version 6 is already under development. Our intent
is to embed a 3D vizualization capability into tools used for tasks
such as project management, bathymetry editing, and patch tests. The first
tool using this capability is part of the 5.0.6 release. This program is
called MBgrdviz, and allows simple 2D and 3D vizualization of GMT grids. Some
screen dumps are available here.
- Integrating Third-Party Bathymetry Editors
with MB-System (October 6, 2004)
- This
document addresses the issue of integrating a third-party
bathymetry
editor with the MB-System
processing environment.
- Since some editors
may have licensing and distribution schemes (e.g. commercial with
source held proprietary) that are inconsistent with the GNU Public
License (GPL) applied to MB-System,
the suggestions presented here do
not involve direct use of GPL
licensed MB-System
source code.
- For the
most part, this can be accomplished using executable programs that are
part of the MB-System
distribution, and therefore freely available to
be installed (but not sold) by third parties.
- However, we also include
some code derived from the MB-System
distribution that we will
separately release under the Lessor
GNU Public
License (LGPL), allowing those
functions to be linked with commercial software.
- Draft MB-System Cookbook Now Available
(December 5, 2003)
- We are developing an MB-System Cookbook to provide tutorial
style documentation for MB-System Version 5. A preliminary (incomplete)
draft of this cookbook by Val Schmidt, Dale Chayes, and David Caress is
being made available here along with the data samples used to
illustrate the use of our software (see
links below).
- New MB-System Discussion Email List Established
(December 5, 2003)
- We have established an MB-System discussion email list to
facillitate communication among MB-System developers and users see
links below (see
links below).
- SURF format API released under GPL by ATLAS
Hydrographics GmbH (October 18, 2001)
- ATLAS Hydrographics GmbH of Bremen, Germany, has released the
source code used to read and write swath mapping sonar data in the SURF
format as open source under the GNU Public License (GPL).
- ATLAS markets a number of widely used multibeam sonars,
including the Fansweep 15 and Fansweep 20 multibeams for shallow water
surveying and the Hydrosweep MD-2 and Hydrosweep DS-2 multibeams for
mid- to deep-water surveying.
- The ATLAS HYDROMAP processing package stores Fansweep
and Hydrosweep data in the SURF format. A large amount of seafloor
mapping data worldwide is archived in this format.
- We will be adding support for the SURF format in MB-System
soon (as time and resources allow).
- MB-System NSF Proposal Funded(April
6, 2001)
- The Marine Geology and Geophysics Program of the NSF has
approved our request for another five years of funding for MB-System
development and support.
- We thank all of the MB-System users who provided letters of
support for inclusion in this proposal. Your time and effort are
appreciated!!
- We also thank Dr. David Epp, our NSF Program Manager, and the
mail reviewers and panel members who reviewed our latest proposal.
- Caution
MB-System is under active development and is updated periodically. This
(usually) results in improved performance and additional capabilities,
but often means that the documentation (including these web pages) lag
somewhat behind the actual software. Please bear with us and send your
comments and suggestions.
- Downloads
The MB-System source code distribution and related files, including
data samples, are available by anonymous ftp to
To find further documentation about downloading the MB-System source
code distribution go to:
- Documentation
The complete web page documentation distributed with MB-System can be
accessed here:
-
The draft MB-System Cookbook tutorial
documentation by Val Schmidt, Dale N. Chayes, and David W. Caress is
available both as web pages and as a downloadable pdf document:
A document providing guidance for integrating a third-party
bathymetry
editor with the MB-System
processing environment can be accessed here:
- A few swath data format specifications made available to us can
be
viewed here:
MB-System Discussion
List
We maintain an MB-System discussion email list to facillitate
communication among MB-System developers and users. We encourage users
with questions and/or problems to use this list rather than emailing
the developers directly. One must subscribe to the list in order to
post messages, but the message archive is publically viewable and
searchable over a web interface. The maximum message size in this list
is 100K.
- To read the archives go to:
- To subscribe go to:
- MB-System Announcement List
We maintain a second, very low traffic list of email addresses which is
used solely for providing notification of major updates. If you would
like to be notified when new releases are available, but do not wish to
join the discussion list described above, please send an email message
to:
- majordomo@ldeo.columbia.edu
- with a single line in the body of the message that says:
- to be automatically added to the announcement list.
- Last Updated: January 14, 2006