Chirp 3260

Deep water sub-bottom profiling and surveying singlebeam echosounder

KNUDSEN

Perth, CA

Description

The Chirp 3260 echosounder is housed in a 5U rack case and interfaces directly to the user's computer through a USB cable connection. SounderSuite software is provided with the system which allows the user, through the EchoControl portion of the software, to operate, control and view the echogram real time while recording the depth data on the hard drive. The Chirp series of echosounders offer wideband chirp and correlation processing, sub-bottom sediment profiling data acquisition, deep water sounding for target detection, as well as industry standard SEG-Y data format.

The Chirp 3260 full ocean depth system is commonly used by researcher's worldwide for deep ocean survey and scientific research, typically configured for 3.5kHz /12kHz with max output power of 10kW on the 3.5kHz channel and 2kW on the 12kHz channel. This unit has become a standard with the UNOLS research vessel organization within North America which includes agencies such as Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Woods Hole and numerous universities. Most of the vessels are equipped with a 4 x 4 sixteen element 3.5 kHz. transducer array, and a separate 12 kHz. transducer. This sonar profiler is very versatile and is available with a wide range of signal types and power output to suit specific subsurface geophysical requirements while providing high-resolution data. The Chirp 3260 also has the capability to expand channels and output power for future growth. The Chirp 3260 has all the tools a geophysical research team could be looking for in a deep water survey system.

Specifications

General: Year of initial development

2007

Max. power consumption [W]

180

Width [m]

0.533

Length [m]

0.483

Height [m]

0.222

System integration: Remote operation capability

Y

Supported external data inputs

heave, position

Marking of events and other annotations

Y

Real-time sound velocity and temperature profile inclusion

N

Real-time coupling to survey/post-processing software

Y

Data displayed in real time

Digitised depth and full echogram

Mode of operation: Software platform

Max. depth of operation [m]

10000

Min. frequency [kHz]

3.5

Max. frequency [kHz]

210

Number of simultaneous frequencies

4

Max. sounding rate [Hz]

10

Max. pulse length [ms]

64

Dynamic range [dB]

>150dB

Other specifications: Internal data logging details

HDD

Main use of the system

Full ocean depth and sub-bottom profiling

Output: Data output options

Raw data; heave corrected; draft corrected

Data output formats

SEG-Y; NMEA; XTF; ASCII; binary

Data output for sea floor classification

Y

Data display details

Digitised depth and full echogram (raw and heave-corrected)

Connectors

LAN, RS232, USB