Glacial Lake Survey: High-Resolution Bathymetry with MS8200 Multibeam Echo Sounder

Glacial Lake Introduction

The Ranwu Glacial Lake and the Midui Glacial Lake, located in Tibet, are natural wonders in a high-altitude & extremely cold environment. They are over 4,000 meters above sea level and surrounded by steep mountains. The geographical environment is unique harsh and climate is very cold.

Research Mission

The goal of this project is to conduct an underwater topography survey of these two glacial lakes. By using Hydro-Tech’s MS8200 multibeam echo sounder, surveyor measure the underwater terrain under extreme tough environments to establish a comprehensive & high-precision 3D point cloud and TIM model. All these data will be greatly helpful to explore the glacial lake geology, hydrology, meteorology, etc. and is expected to provide unprecedented data support for the research and monitoring of Tibet’s high-altitude glacial lakes.

Project Difficulties

• High Altitude Environment:

The project was done in high-altitude area in Tibet, more than 4,000 meters above sea level. This means that surveyors need to deal with extreme cold temperatures and low oxygen content, which places extremely high demands on the adaptability of equipment and personnel.

• Terrain Complexity:

The glacial lake has large terrain changes and the water depth exceeds 200 meters. There were also many ices floating on the lake surface, which cause certain interference to plan the survey lines and survey operations. It is necessary to overcome the impact of terrain changes, scattering ices obstacles and be careful to the suddenly dropping ice blocks.

Given these complex and variable underwater and surface conditions, the Hydro-Tech MS8200 multibeam echo sounder was selected for this critical mission. Its exceptional adaptability through multiple working modes allowed us to achieve highly accurate results across challenging environments—whether dealing with rugged underwater terrain, turbid glacial water, or the need for both fine detail and large-range surveying.

• Multibeam Performance in Extreme Weather:

In extremely cold conditions, the performance and stability of equipment may be challenged, especially to the transducer arrays. The harsh environment places high demands on the quality and stability of the multibeam. We are proud that Hydro-Tech multibeam withstood the challenges and kept working excellently with high precision result under harsh conditions.

Survey Data Results

Ultimately, our multibeam echo sounder was instrumental in the successful completion of this demanding mission. The system reliably collected high-precision bathymetric data for both Ranwu and Midui Glacial Lakes, providing critical foundational data for geological, hydrological, and climatic research on these high-altitude glacial lakes.