Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 had “disappeared” in the morning of March 8th, carrying 239 passengers. Radio contact was lost. No sign of the aircraft or its crew or passengers has been found despite the intense air and sea searches of the Indian Ocean, where the plane was believed to have gone down.

But now, a combination of different sonars will be utilized to see if any pieces of the plane lie on the ocean floor.

First, the probable area where the plane went down was narrowed down from a 600,000 square kilometer patch to just a 60,000 square kilometer patch through detailed analysis of the automatic satellite “handshakes.” This occurred even after the plane lost radio contact. These automatic communications gave some clues to where the plane was and when it lost power.

Next, the area of ocean is being mapped out by a Chinese ship with new multi-beam sonar equipment. The sonar emits sound waves in a fan shape from beneath the ship’s hull.

By measuring and recording the time it takes for sound waves to travel to the sea floor and bounce back, a rough map of the image is created. Multi-beam sonar uses multiple waves or beams of sound at once. Therefore, a larger area is mapped in each pass.

With the depths of the Indian Ocean mapped with multi-beam sonar, two Dutch ships will use new sonar technology to get a side view of objects on the ocean floor. The new “towfish” equipment uses a sonar that sits deep under the water, towed just 150 meters above the ocean floor.

The towfish emits sound waves at an angle and analyzes the return sound waves in order capture a detailed picture of the objects on the ocean floor.

By combining the information collected from the two types of sonars, a full, high-resolution image can be created and studied to find out what is actually at the bottom of the sea bed. This will help identify parts of the plane if there are any pieces on the seafloor.

The search is expected to take a year and will begin at the end of September.