Abstract
Doppler current profilers are used in oceanography to measure oceanic circulation but also in hydrology to calculate the flow of rivers. They allow the retrieval of water mass profiles in terms of velocity and direction. Direction is obtained via an electronic compass and tilt sensors, while velocity is obtained by measuring Doppler pulse shifts back-scattered by particles located in water cells allocated along the instrument’s measurement range. Current meters are usually tested in towing basins or hydrodynamic channels, but these facilities present limits in terms of the measurement range, particles concentration and time costs. This paper presents a novel method developed to test the trueness of these velocity measurements in the laboratory, along with the uncertainty of this test and the results obtained with current meters and stand-alone profilers. The method is based on the measurement of the frequency of pulses emitted by each transducer of the instrument independently, and on the simulation of received echoes by a variable frequency sinusoidal signal.
Highlights
Oceans control a big part of the Earth’s climate through ocean–atmosphere exchanges, phenomena such as El-Niño or great cycles and oceanic currents
Doppler current profilers are used in oceanography to measure oceanic circulation and in hydrology to calculate the flow of rivers
This paper presents a novel method developed to test the trueness of these velocity measurements in the laboratory, along with the uncertainty of this test and the results obtained with current meters and stand-alone profilers
Summary
Oceans control a big part of the Earth’s climate through ocean–atmosphere exchanges, phenomena such as El-Niño or great cycles and oceanic currents. As the marine environment is favorable to acoustic wave propagation, the arrival time of pulses reflected by particles led to the creation of current profilers. Water-column velocity profiles can be obtained placing profilers under the hull of oceanographic boats and directed towards the seabed, or placed in cages deposited on the seabed and directed towards the surface, on mooring cables or towed from a boat. Their range, which depends on their wavelength, extends from a few meters to several hundreds of meters, according to the particles concentrations
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