We promote BioBase as an automated “easy-button” solution for creating aquatic maps, but unfortunately, mobile acoustic data collection is not something you can push a button and forget about and expect perfect results. Like using most other sophisticated instrumentation, users need to monitor that the instruments are performing as expected and sometimes make adjustments if they aren’t.
Category: HDS
Is StructureScan worth it? You be the judge
Debating whether it’s worth the upgrade to the new HDS7 Gen2 Touch StructureScan bundle? Outside of the bigger screen and more intuitive touch technology than its older generation HDS5 sibling, the imagery produced by StructureScan should be reason enough!
Below are the same areas of a lake in Minnesota using the traditional 200 khz signal (top) and the 455 khz DownScan add-on (bottom). A school of fish hovering over Eurasian watermilfoil plants is clearly resolved in the bottom image. The wider cone angle of the traditional signal cannot adequately resolve these minute features. BioBase leverages both signals to produce accurate map data sets and reproduce spatially explicit imagery for plant cover typing. Contact us if you would like to know more about HDS features or are interested in purchasing a unit
Lowrance GPS Accuracy: Seeing is believing!
A quick post to demonstrate the precision of Lowrance’s internal WAAS corrected GPS antennae is in a variety of open water environments. Docks? Boat lifts? Overhanging trees? No problem. WAAS correction in North America is explained here. Have a look at a couple examples in ciBioBase:
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| GPS Track from a Lowrance HDS on Newport Bay, California overlain onto a bathymetry map created by automated processing of the Lowrance .sl2 log file by ciBioBase. This trip was used for water volume calculations, bathymetry, and vegetation mapping |
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| GPS tracks and ciBioBase derived bathymetry map in a 3-acre pond in a wooded valley in a metropolitan area of Minnesota, an example of retention pond volume monitoring. |
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| GPS tracks and ciBioBase derived contour map of a 3-acre pond in Illinois for water volume and aquatic vegetation analysis |
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| GPS tracks around docks and boat lifts and ciBioBase derived contour map on Grand Lake O the Cherokees near Tulsa Oklahoma. The satellite even shows data collection in an area where a boat can be moored next to the dock. That’s close! |
