The seismic source produces a high frequency sound pulse which when reflected produces a very high resolution seismic image. Due to the high frequency and lower power of the boomer it has limited penetration into the sea bed approximately 100 m. For systems capable of deeper sea bed penetration see airguns and sparker.

The return signal from the surface tow boomer (seismic source) is captured by a seven channel hydrophone and is digitally recorded and processed using a Coda Octopus DA200 system.