Abstract:

A scientific echo sounder is one of the main instruments used for acoustic surveying of living marine resources, and its appropriate calibration guarantees the reliability of the data it acquires. Among the different methods available for calibrating a scientific echo sounder, the approach used most widely in the field is the standard spherical calibration method. Taking the preparations adopted for 13th Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition as an example, this paper describes the application of the standard spherical calibration process to the calibration of the Simrad EK80 echo sounder onboard China’s R/V Xuelong 2 polar icebreaker, including the preparation, calibration procedure, and analysis of the calibration result. Following its successful calibration, the Simrad EK80 instrument was used to provide support for standardized implementation of the equipment used by other Chinese scientific research ships in the polar region.

Key words: R/V Xuelong 2, echo sounder, calibration of acoustic, Arctic Ocean