AtlantOS: Seafloor Mapping - Completing a big puzzle
Mapping the world’s oceans is a huge task. So far, only between 10 and 15 % of the ocean floor has been mapped in detail. With the currently available technology, mapping the world’s oceans would take approximately 1,000 ship years. Several initiatives have started to speed up this process. Within the European Union's Horizon 2020 project AtlantOS, the collection of underway bathymetry data was initiated, where several German research vessels collect bathymetry data on their transits. Although at present the chances are still high that any particular track will cover terra incognita, a more strategic approach from the seafloor mapping community is needed in the long term in order to avoid duplication of effort and also to keep environmental impacts (e.g. ocean noise) to a minimum.
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