Curiously, in 1988 and again in 1999 the Russian Research Vessel AK N. Strakhov visited almost precisely the same area of the Atlantic where the AF447 search is currently taking place. The two Russian multibeam expeditions produced extensive bathemetry data which has been archived in a world repository accessible through NOAA.
View full-size image
here.
In this photo, the 1988 Russian surveys are in yellow; the 1999 in olive. The single en-route scanning track above the Russian search area (blue) is a 1996 voyage by the Knorr from Woods Hole. Use the multibeam viewer
here for more information. In examining the metadata files, I couldn't discover "why" there was such interest and intense activity here a decade ago.
Backoffice: ArcView shapefiles seem to be the standard format for representing contour lines and other bathymetric features among oceanographers and geologists, but it might be that the Remus and Orion sonar data need to be looked at pixel-by-pixel, kilometer-by-kilometer in raw form to interpret anomalies and potential targets. I believe the BEA's control room video showed
Fledermaus being used for 3D visualization. The Fledermaus folks do offer a 30-day free evaluation of their software; all you need now is the raw data from BEA to be useful as another set of eyes. In any case, I'm sure many sharp eyes have been and are at work. Perhaps if the experts can't find our needle in the haystack, they will release the data for the rest of us to try... without outrageous nuisances and amateur claims. Years ago at the checkout counter of the supermarket, I remember one startling tabloid headline that screamed "DC3 Found on Moon!" with a blurry photo that could have had many interpretations.
View full-size
here.