Skip to Main Content

Multispectral TruePix™ Compressed Water Column

All R2Sonic Multibeam Echosounders support TruePix™. TruePix™ is a unique functionality developed by R2Sonic that has the benefit of simultaneously reporting backscatter and water column data. The exclusive TruePix™ format delivers highly compressed water column imagery data (1% of traditional water column files), which enables real time water column data processing. In addition, TruePix™ returns amplitude, range, and angle for each target, which ensures unmatched accuracy. 

Multispectral TruePix™ consists of combining the capabilities of TruePix™ with R2Sonic’s proprietary multifrequency mode. In multifrequency mode, surveyors can ping at up to 5 different frequencies in a single pass. The intensity of the acoustic response for each frequency is different depending on the type of target in the water column. 

Being able to survey at up to 5 frequencies in one pass and with a single MBES presents several advantages:

  • It increases productivity
  • It reduces the costs associated with traditional multi-frequency surveys that require either multiple MBES or multiple passes
  • All 5 frequencies have the same grazing angle, which increases uniformity, accuracy, and precision.

With Multispectral TruePix, scientists can compare responses and discriminate between the different elements in the water column. This is a new area of research.

Learn more about Multispectral TruePix™

  • TruePix™ is a continuous record reporting one back scatter value for each range per side. Close to Nadir it will typically be a few backscatter values that covers the bottom detect point, while on the outer beams it can be many hundreds of backscatter values around the bottom detect point. TruePixincludes port and starboard time series magnitude values (similar to sidescan), plus across‐track angle values (relative to the sonar head) to help you locate each magnitude sample in space.
  • This is alike to an interferometric side scan data set, so the angular data will be noisier than the bathy data reported in the bathy packet.
  • All the settings are provided in the packet so they can be unwound by the image processing package.
  • TruePixis assembled independently of the bathy data. Another way to think about it ‐ You wouldn't want to use bathy results to reject sidescan data. Same for TruePix. By keeping the imagery independent from the bathymetry, it can be used for quality control.
  • We were planning on the image processing reading the pitch data and applying it. The along‐track angle (relative to the sonar head) is currently zero, as reported by header value H0_TxSteeringVert. TruePix™: Assembled and corrected imagery record with raw phase data. TruePix™ is derived independently of the bottom detect, and thus can be used to evaluate the quality of the bathymetry data. It also is a continuous record for each side containing amplitude and phase for each pixel, and the ambiguities associated with snippet assembly has been eliminated.
Recommended Resources

See how universities are using R2Sonic to advance scientific research

R2Sonic Products

We offer a simplified portfolio of 4 MBES, all with wideband selectable operating frequencies. What sets R2Sonic apart is the ability to customize each sonar with any of our suite of revolutionary technical options. You can add any of these options to any sonar at any time. You can upgrade remotely from wherever you are, whenever you need.

captain and crew operating a multibeam echosounder on bridge of ship
Contact us

Ask a question

Let us know if you have questions or want to learn more about our multibeam echosounders and their applications. We're happy to help!
Send us a message

What Our Customers Are Saying About Us...

Lloyd Huff

Consultant

Former Research Professor at Univeristy of New Hampshire and NOAA

Anand Hiroji

The School of Ocean Science and Engineering

University of Southern Mississippi