The Multi-Narrow Beam Echo Sounder HS-10 is the first Japanese-made deep sea echo sounding equipment jointly developed by the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. and Furuno Electric Co., Ltd. The HS-10 was installed on the Yokosuka, the support ship for the manned submersible Sinkai 6500. A series of experiments was carried out at sea to evaluate its basic performance during the sea trials of the Yokosuka from December 1988 through February 1989.
In these experiments, the HS-10 demonstrated its ability to sound the depths of seamounts ranging from 1,200 to 4,500 m deep as well as the trench bottom of 9,600 m maximum depth.
This paper introduces the main characteristics of the HS-10 and reports on the results of the experiments.
