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Terminology

TermDefinition
TSL3Tersus proprietary sonar log file format used by the ES200 echo sounder and MarineBenchVue
BLHGeodetic coordinates: B = latitude, L = longitude, H = ellipsoidal height
HGOHeight above Geoid (orthometric height)
RTKReal-Time Kinematic — centimetre-level differential GNSS positioning
DraftVertical distance from the water surface to the transducer face
Sound SpeedSpeed of sound through water, used to convert echo travel time to depth. Typical value: 1500 m/s
Tidal CorrectionAdjustment to reduce measured depth to a common datum (e.g. chart datum) using tide gauge data
WGS84World Geodetic System 1984 — the global datum used by GPS
Transverse MercatorA cylindrical map projection commonly used for UTM and national grids
UTMUniversal Transverse Mercator — worldwide projected coordinate system divided into 6° zones
Datum ShiftTransformation parameters to convert between different geodetic reference frames
Waterfall DisplaySonar visualization where each column represents one ping and rows represent depth bins
Bottom LineThe detected seafloor or riverbed return in the sonar waterfall
False DataSonar returns that do not represent the actual bottom — caused by fish, bubbles, or interference

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