The MTA is composed of 32, 5 MHz, transducers spaced 2 cm apart.  The instrument housing is 316 stainless steel and is designed for use in the energetic near-shore coastal region.

The MTA is a stand-alone system. It is composed of a transducer array and the attached pressure housing which houses the data-logger and all required electronics. This MTA is capable of recording two seabed  profiles per second. The data-logger can either run independently or communicate with an outside processor and offload the data whenever prompted.

The instrument has proven capable of measuring small scale bedforms in the near-shore ocean environment.  The maximum vertical resolution is 1 mm, and the maximum horizontal resolution is 2 cm.