GeoHab Backscatter Working Group (BSWG)

In acoustic seabed mapping, "backscatter" is the common term for the measure of sound that is reflected by the seafloor back to the transmitting sonar. This measure informs on seabed type and objects. The Backscatter Working Group (BSWG) is a an international group of scientists, researchers, and industry representatives, established at the Geohab 2013 conference in Rome, with the objective to promote actions towards the ultimate goal that (1) backscatter data acquired from differing systems, or processed through differing software tools, generate consistent values over a same area under the same conditions, so that (2) these data are scientifically meaningful and usable by end-users from various application domains (geoscience, environment, hydrography…).