Over the mountains high

--iBoat BS2 Surveyed on Tianchi, a Lake 1,907 Meters above Sea Level

Background:

Tianchi is a beautiful scenic area in Xinjiang, Northwest China, situated at 43°53′9.7″N 88°7′56.6″E. It is an alpine drift lake shaped in the Quaternary Glacier period.

The lake is 1,907 meters (6,257 ft) above sea level, covering 4.9 square kilometers (1.9 sq mi), 105 meters (344 ft) deep at the deepest point. Its underwater terrain is so complex that the surveying can be quite difficult and challenging for surveyors. The glacial water flowing down from the snow-capped mountains is close to zero degrees Celsius.

iBoat BS2 is a swift and intelligent surveying unmanned surface vessel with unmatched usability and professional hull design.

A high- performance single beam echo sounder, high-precision GNSS positioning and on-board data control and acquisition software that can be installed on the boat practically.

High-performance sounding module offers a measurement range from 0.15m to 300m, able to adapt to different working environments. Versatile applications can be done equipped with ADCP of side scan sonar.

Task goals:

• To finish a hydrographic survey within 10 cm accuracy

Challenges:

• Wide surveying range

• Complex underwater terrain

• Near-freezing water

Due to the vast lake surface, the surveyors planned to divide the survey range into parts and measure it from the inside to the outside. After setting, the iBoat BS2 launched the survey task.

The near-freezing water did not hold iBoat BS2 back – it run as perfectly as prediction. Its great performance was benefited from its powerful power system, DC brushless motor drive and removable ducted propellers.

The accuracy of iBoat BS2 was as high as ever, with an offset error of no more than 10cm. The survey data, whose lines were basically parallel, looks like an interesting painting.

During the survey, the surveyors found that the data gap was very large. When the iBoat BS2 traveled from the shore waters to the center of the lake, the water depth data immediately deepened -- the water depth reached 80 meters when it was halfway through. However, iBoat BS2 handled it easily and provided high-quality data because it integrated the HD-510 depth sounder independently developed by Hi-Target. Its excellent sounding performance made it easy to detect the water depth.