Effect of Sound Velocity on Bathymetric Data Aquired by EM120(multi-beam echo sounder)

Bathymetric data collected using a multi-beam echo sounder during marine scientific survey is essential for geologic and oceanographic research works. Accurate measurment of sound velocity profile(SVP) in water-column is important for bathymetric data processing. SVP can vary at different locations during the survey undertaken for wide areas. In addition, an observational error can occur when different equipments(Sound Velocity Profiler, Conductivity Temperature Depth, eXpendable BathyThermograph) are used for measuring SVP at the same water column. In this study, we used an MB-system software to show changes in bathymetry caused by variation of SVP. The analyses showed that the sound velocity(SV) changes due to the depth and thickness of thermocline had more significant effects on the resulting bathymetric data than those of surface mixed layer. The observational errors between SVP measuring instruments did not cause much differneces in the processed bathymetric data. Bathymetric survey line is better to be established to the direction that the change of temperature can be minimize to reduce the variation of SVP during the data acquisition along the survey line.