Estimation of Manganese Nodule Coverage Using Multi-Beam Amplitude Data

Manganese nodule coverage is estimated based on multi-beam and deep-towed video nodule survey profiles of about 1,700 km in the China Pioneer Area of Eastern Pacific. Two statistical equations for estimating nodule coverage are derived separately from the multi-beam normal incidence amplitude data and angular amplitude data based on theoretical analysis of influence factors on multi-beam amplitude data. Predictions generated by the normal incidence amplitude model fall within 5% of real nodule coverage, and theoretically calculated angular amplitude data fits well with the original multi-beam amplitudes at incident angles larger than 20° according to nodule coverage estimated from the deep-towed video data.