Multibeam bathymetry raw data using the ship's own Atlas Hydrographic Hydrosweep DS 2 multibeam echo sounder was not continuously recorded during RV METEOR cruise M37/1. Data was recorded on 15 days between 1996-12-05 and 1996-12-19. This dataset contains a survey North Atlantic Ocean mostly in the area around the Canary Islands. The approximate average depth is around 3800 m and ranges between 90m (min depth) and 13000m (unplausible max depth).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.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 bad to good since the gridded hillshade data showed relatively few obstacles in shallow waters and bad data in deeper areas.Data can be processed e.g. with the open source software package MB-System (Caress, D. W., and D. N. Chayes, MB-System: Mapping the Seafloor, http://www.mbari.org/products/research-software/mb-system/, 2022).

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