Better ocean maps would assist in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, an expert says.
Australia has the third-largest marine exclusive economic zone in the world, but the CSIRO estimates only about 12 per cent of it has been mapped.
Australian National University professor Neville Exon says better maps would benefit Australians in many ways, and would assist in finding planes and ships lost at sea.
“It’s useful in the fisheries area, it’s useful in the offshore resources area, it’s useful in using the knowledge of biodiversity to set up fisheries management activities, and it’s also useful in providing at least the framework of where a plane may have crashed,” he said.
“If you know the water depth is so and so, the slope is this that and the other, then you can have a better idea of what techniques you’ll need to use to do detailed work to find a plane.”
The search for the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean is intensifying after several ‘pings’ were located that could be the plane’s black box on the ocean floor.
Good weather is forecast today, as the search zone is expected to be expanded to approximately 234,000 square kilometres.
The first pulse signal was detected by a Chinese ship on Friday, followed by another picked up by the same ship on Saturday.
The pulses were within two kilometres of each other and are consistent with signals emitted from an aircraft black box.
A third “acoustic noise” was detected yesterday by Australian vessel Ocean Shield, 300 nautical miles from where the first two were detected.
Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who is coordinating the search, says the reports are encouraging but has urged caution.
A British Royal Navy vessel, HMS Echo, is in the area where the first two pulse signals were detected.
The black box only has power to fire the signal for about a month, meaning the pulse is set to die any day now.
2014 ABC