Multibeam bathymetry raw data using the ship's own Kongsberg (Simrad) EM 120 multibeam echosounder was continuously (with a few data gaps) recorded during RV METEOR cruise M75/3. Data was recorded on 33 days between 2008-03-03 and 2008-04-06. This dataset contains mostly a survey in the South Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean and Mozambique Channel. The approximate average depth of the entire dataset is around 2200m, ranging from 500m to 3300m. The data are archived at the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency of Germany (Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie, BSH) and provided to PANGAEA database for data curation and publication. No ancillary sound velocity profiles (SVP) files from the cruise are archived at the BSH, thus no SVP files are added to this dataset. However, also data analysis of the multibeam raw data revealed that SVP has been changed during the survey. This publication is conducted within the efforts of the German Marine Research Alliance in the core area 'Data management and Digitalization' (Deutsche Allianz Meeresforschung, DAM). Data are unprocessed and therefore contains incorrect depth measurements (artifacts) without further processing. Note that refraction errors can be expected due to the lack of proper SVP. Overall, it appears that the data quality is rather good since the gridded hillshade data showed relatively few obstacles besides some "railway tracks" in the data at the center beams. Note, that occasionally the EM710 device was partially operated at the same time, however it is not clear whether the simultaneous operation of both systems caused interference during data acquisition. Data can be processed e.g. with the open source software package MB-System (Caress et al. 2024, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6302801).

These data should not be used for navigational purposes.Data publishing was realized by Daniel Damaske, MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (University of Bremen).