SonarWiz Adds Sophisticated CUBE Gridding Engine to Industry-Leading Software

Analysts and Surveyors Now Have Powerful New Tool for Real-Time Visualization and Assessment

In a major development allowing users to immediately visualize vast amounts of bathymetry, sub-bottom, and sidescan data, Chesapeake Technology has added a robust new gridding engine to its industry-leading SonarWiz software.

The new gridding capabilities allow users to quickly and easily create swath bathymetry and amplitude grids using complex algorithms such as the NOAA-supported Combined Uncertainty and Bathymetry Estimator (CUBE). Users can view and edit the resulting grids within SonarWiz, and then export them to 20 industry standard GIS and visualization formats.

“Our customers can now quickly view all their bathymetry, sub-bottom and sidescan data together in one place at one time, leading to better decisions in the field and in the office,” said David Finlayson, Chief Scientist for Chesapeake Technology. “It also delivers substantial cost savings to users by eliminating the need to purchase separate processing software for each sonar type used.”

Traditional backscatter processing systems deliver their output as one-dimensional tiff or jpeg images that do not reflect the full range of amplitude data modern sonars collect. SonarWiz now allows customers to grid amplitude data and generate summary statistics for each sonar node. The resulting grid product is a statistically meaningful measure of seafloor amplitude but at much more manageable data volumes.

“We realized when we implemented CUBE bathymetry processing for SonarWiz that many of the advanced sonar calculations would be useful for more than just bathymetry,” said Finlayson. For example, our customers who use sonar backscatter in remote sensing applications will now be able to export actual amplitude values into their GIS systems rather than just pictures of the data.”

About Chesapeake Technology, Inc. Chesapeake Technology, Inc. (CTI) has been offering sonar mapping software, custom solutions, and thought-leading consulting services to the marine geophysical and geological survey industries for over 20 years. CTI’s SonarWiz software provides real-time sonar data acquisition and processing for sidescan, sub-bottom, bathymetry, and magnetometer sonar data used by hundreds of clients worldwide, including many of the world’s navies, NOAA, USGS, Fugro, C&C Technologies, and leading academic institutions. CTI is a privately owned company located in Mountain View, CA.